I READ about an artist who is 86 years old and still paints every day. Not much of a marketer, he never put much effort into selling his work, but now he wants some recognition. In a late-stage burst of perseverance he has managed to have a small museum mount a retrospective of his life’s work. This reminded me of a quote I recently came across that struck me hard: “It’s never too late to become what you might have been.”
Our culture places such a high value on youth that we start believing we’re washed up by the time we hit 40. So what happens when you’re 70 and you’re still alive and kicking, in fact kicking higher than you did at 40? If we live to be 105, which people are actually doing more and more lately, should we just sit around playing Bingo for the next 35 years? (Just to be clear, I haven’t played Bingo since day camp when I was 10, and I certainly don’t mean to cast Bingo players in a negative light. For all I know, playing Bingo is why we are here. Maybe God places a high value on Bingo and only those who play regularly will go to Heaven. I know nothing, just like you and everyone else, since none of the people who die ever write back.)
All I’m saying is that old isn’t dead. Anyway, I plan to keep painting and keep writing and who knows—maybe someday I’ll become what I might have been.
—Andrea Rouda
Andrea Rouda blogs at The Daily Droid.
