Earlier this week my wife and I went to see James Taylor and his outstanding band, and it was fantastic. At 68 years old James is still as great a singer/songwriter/performer in his third act as he was in his first. Same silky voice, same “aw shucks” stage demeanour, same gracious engagement with his band and audience, same energy. A great example of what is possible in “the third act”. I have never met James Taylor and yet I owe a lot to him. Here’s why.
self-organize
It’s Official…
“This is the year that I turn 60”.
I wrote those words in my first blog and this event is the reason that I started this conversation about “the Third Act” in the first place. Well, it is official now as this month I actually celebrated my 60th birthday. It was a bit of a non-event actually. Not because we did not celebrate it; we did celebrate it after all with a wonderful stay in the beautiful Rocky Mountains. And not because I felt that “no one remembered” because I received some of the most endearing cards and letters that I could have ever expected. No, it was more of a non-event emotionally because I had decided to “turn 60 in my mind”, months before the actual date. My decision to do so brings into focus some of the research that comes out of the neuroscience labs that inform us that if we can “bring the target closer”, “get started on the goal sooner”, it gives us a sense of momentum and we feel like we are much farther along the way. That’s how I feel.
Staying Curious and Watching Life Self-Organize
One of the great things about getting older is that, if you choose to, you can start to relax a bit. In the first and second acts, it seems to me a person spends so much time trying to figure things out, trying to decide whether to go “this way or that way”, spending all kinds of energy being anxious about a whole lot of things. I know I did. Over the past years something good (at least I think it is good) has been happening to me. I have stopped wondering why certain things are happening and instead I have allowed myself to accept the unusual and interesting ways that life “self-organizes”. The concept of “self-organization” is central to the description of biological systems. I certainly don’t pretend to understand much of this. I simply love the idea that life in general, which includes of course, my specific life, “self-organizes”.
The Third Act 