OK, I admit it. I’ve been feeling a bit lost lately in my search for midlife meaning.
I’ve also been having quite a bit of pain in my lower back. It’s nothing new, old injuries from too many moves and bike accidents, I’m sure. I was always the stubborn one, wouldn’t wait for help when moving heavy furniture, just powered on through. Now I regret it all, now that I can hardly move!
It probably didn’t help that I watched a very cynical (but funny!) movie yesterday called “Confessions of a dangerous mind” (2003). Have you ever seen it? It’s definitely a dark comedy along the same lines as “Burn After Reading”. It’s supposedly the autobiography of Chuck Barris who created such crazy success stories as “The Dating Game”, “The Newlywed Game” and The Gong Show for network TV. He also claims to have killed 33 spies as a CIA operative in the process!
So here’s his final idea for a game show called “The Old Game.” You put three old guys with loaded guns in a room and ask them revealing questions about their lives like: “Who are you?” “What have you accomplished?” and “How close have you come to realizing your dreams?’ Whomever doesn’t blow his brains out wins a refrigerator!
I’m also reading the book “The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything” (#517 in Amazon sales right now). After a scathing assessment of our school systems (i.e. Paul McCarthy was told he had no musical talent in high school, not even allowed into the choir!), author Ken Robinson explains that “the Element” is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion.
Apparently finding our own “element” is the goal because, “when people arrive at their Element, they feel most themselves, most inspired, and achieve at their highest levels.” Then Sir Robinson shows that age and occupation are no barriers. He looks at what conditions enable us to find ourselves in the Element and what stifles that possibility. It’s all about enhancing our own creativity and innovation by thinking differently about human resources and imagination.
Still haven’t finished it yet. I’ll let you know if I find my “Element” anytime soon. In the meantime, I’ll try to stay off “The Old Game”!!!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
This sounds fantastic. Thanks for a worthwhile recommendation!
I’ve been trying to connect with my element for a long time, find my purpose, but perhaps I have already found it. Perhaps my purpose was to be a mother, to raise a child, to teach her. So now what? Now that she’s an adult. Now I look at this young adult and I learn from her. Perhaps my purpose is as cyclical as life itself. First I learn as a child, then I live my element as a mother and raise and teach my child, now I learn again and learning is always puzzling …and fulfilling.