Stones

35,000 feet above Canada.
Somewhere between Fort McMurray and Churchill.
Having just finished watching Martin Scorcese’s chronicle of the Rolling Stones—Shine a Light.

It affected me in a surprising way. I’m not sure exactly why I selected it from the case of videos the flight attended offered after we boarded. I suppose I had heard some good things about it, but I’ve not typically been a big fan of rock films. The preliminary scenes of Scorcese and the band hassling over arrangements was more compelling than the opening rock numbers, I wasn’t even sure I’d last watching the whole concert. Fortunately, Scorsese peppered it with old film clips of the band, especially interviews from their early years that gave a larger context to the film. It was more of a telescopic view of the lives of four artists. The vintage segments were used sparingly and powerfully.

Early on one interviewer banally asked how long the band expected to continue. Baby faced Jagger replied with honest wonder that he was surprised that they had already lasted two years. He figured they might be good for one more. Later in the film Dick Cavett asked Jagger if he could picture himself still rocking at sixty. Jagger unhesitatingly replied in the affirmative which drew laughter from the audience. Little did they know.

This made me wonder about my future and my past. I am sixty. There were few things that I was doing in my twenties that would have warranted such a question. Then again I’m not Mick Jagger. Still it’s a great question of anyone at any age. To set it up properly I think I would first ask something along the lines of, “What are you doing now that most excites you?” Then I’d follow that with, “...and do you see yourself still doing it in twenty, thirty, forty years?”

What I was doing in my early twenties was mostly art. Making some. Teaching some. It is hard to place myself back in the mindset of that time or even to pick a single point in time from which to evaluate those questions. The answers would change so rapidly from phase to phase—as an art student, as an art teacher, as an architecture student.... Of course all of those experiences became the bedrock of who I am today as an architect and a trainer.

More than this retrospective look I was drawn, during the course of watching this film, to think about my future.

What excites me now? Training. Design. Writing. Tikkun olam. Prayer. Eldering. Cycling. A nice list.

Do I see myself doing any or all of these even twenty years from now?

“You bet.”

(Let the audience laugh if they think I’m kidding.)