Ambitions

[poliphilo]

I've been looking for a line (I think it's from the Ingoldsby Legends- but deuced if I can find it) which declares that a man has fulfilled his duty to the ages if he has

1. Produced a child
2. Written a book
3. Planted a tree.

I've done all three- the first in triplicate. So, please sir, can I be excused, now?

When I was a very small child I wanted to be a farmer. Well, having just spent an hour mucking out the rabbit and the guinea pigs, I reckon I've fulfilled that ambition too. P.S. There's a reason why guinea pigs are called "pigs" and it's not just because they squeak.

Do I have any ambitions left? More pertinently, is it proper for a person in their mid 50s to still have ambitions?

Except to grow old with dignity and grace- and not to hang about too long.

Comments

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

I think that when we stop having ambitions, it's time to call it a day.

You could always write *another* book. The first was jolly good.

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

is it proper for a person in their mid 50s to still have ambitions?

God, I sure hope so. I'm 55, busy planning my emigration from Sweden to the UK next year, finding a new job, all kinds of neat stuff. I haven't seen India yet or learned to scuba dive either.

[airstrip.livejournal.com]

Only random chance with sperm bank dispersions will allow me to fulfill (1).

[suzilem.livejournal.com]

I briefly googled and found that particular triad variously attributed to the Talmud, Jose Marti, and Balzac. Hemingway also said it, but added "fight a bull" to the other three.

I've got a few ambitions left. Most of them would be much easier to accomplish if I were to become unexpectedly independently wealthy. :-)

Sticking around for a few more years is a worthy ambition.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

I've planted a tree. There is no hope of the first one.

Does the book have to be published?

[ibid.livejournal.com]

I thought that was the Talmund

[seaslug-of-doom.livejournal.com]

I have done none of the above, to my knowledge. Guess I better get busy.

You are aware, of course, that guinea pigs are on the menu in some parts of South America? When one has lemons, one makes lemonade. When one has guinea pigs, one makes BBQ.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

We've been watching documentaries about life before the dinosaurs and life of humans in the early days.

It's hard to see The Meaning of Life back there, and it feels like hubris to force meaning into our lives now.

God, what hard lives we live when it's all about predator or prey. And everybody's muddy and covered with flies.

I wonder if anybody ever cried. How to choose what to cry about? Life was so awful, just finding a mudhole or not getting gored to death meant a good day.

And I complain because I don't have a new sofa. Sheesh.

Ambitions are, I think, a way to force us to feel we are doing something for the hive. Just being--as you say, with dignity and grace--is surely enough.