Nearing Forty: Old Man Alert!

I’ve been reading the Late Great Derek Walcott. A poet and a Nobel Laureate.

From the island of St. Lucia, his work is brilliant, thought-provoking and definitely worth a look. Check him out if you haven’t.

His poetry tends to be the kind I can understand and appreciate. Nevertheless, I looked at his poem “Nearing Forty” and saw these words in the beginning. As I’m turning the bend towards forty, I found the works odd and even juvenile.

I’m talking about the last part.

Not that I’m arguing with the need to, as you grow older, replace the “pleasures of wonder” with something else, as, well, things just don’t surprise you as much anymore. But what I do have issues with is the “stability of truth”.

Of course, if you know me, I’ve been spending quite a bit of my adult life (well, post-military life) reading as much about the world as I can. I even scorn hiking to my S.O.’s regret. Any time not spent learning more about my world, learning to write better so that I can express myself to the world isn’t worth it, IMO.

But the more I learn, the less I know and the less stable the world appears. Both its past and its future and its present.

So how can anyone who’s growing older seem to think there’s a stability of truth to be found? I think this is more of a heuristic that is hurting our country today. Can anyone point to an old person who thinks that they’re right, despite all the evidence to the contrary? I’m guessing they’re everywhere. And I’m guessing that they’re sticking to their stable truth very well.

So here’s to learning more as you grow older and having the strength to deal with the instability of truth and the world. We’ll need it as digging in and believing what’s wrong is worse, even if it’s stable.