Facing a Fathomless Future

Next month I will celebrate my 60th birthday with a big party with many friends, lots of music, a warm fireplace, stories and laughter. I have been doing this every five years since turning 50, since annual birthday parties would come too close together at my age.

The decade of my 50’s has been remarkably fine for me, and the next decade seems equally promising. My Father lived to age 95 and my Mother reached 97 last month, just before she died. Who knows, I might pass 100. Right now my health is better than it was at 50, thanks to early retirement, active swimming and gardening, plus a better diet. My wife and I are building a dream home on the Sunshine coast of British Columbia with countless guest rooms, lovely gardens, and a 3 minute walk to the beach.

But clearly, this can’t go on forever. My primary concerns are for my family and friends scattered literally all around the world. How will our civilization navigate the challenges of constants wars, spreading nuclear weapons, a looming energy shortage, climate change, and economic instability? There appear to be almost equal grounds for great hope or great despair.

At my age, long term planning includes a will and an estate plan, but that is not all. We all must face our own mortality, sooner or later. I got a direct chance to experience this last month with the death of my Mother.

I sat at my Mom’s bedside for the last 12 days before she passed into a coma and died. Since then, I have been reflecting on the span of her life and its implications for my generation.

Mom was born in 1909 in a small prairie town and traveled by covered wagon across trackless wilderness as a small child. She and my father watched the first cars and airplanes arrive, not to mention electric lighting, telephones, central heating, and all the other wonders of the 20th Century.

But she also witnessed the Great Depression of the 1930’s, two world wars, nuclear threats, and other potential global calamities. She raised ten children and at age 50 started university without ever having attended high school. She succeeded in realizing her life dream to become a teacher. She published her autobiography and traveled and spoke at large gatherings until last year. In some ways, she seems fortunate now to be spared from the immense challenges still ahead.

My mother lived her whole life with a simple faith in God, with wholesome values like frugality, honesty, and generousity to family and community. My Harvard professors taught me less about how to live my life than did the simple country folks who were my parents.

My Mother also died well. She died at home, surrounded by her children, grand children and great grand children, plus other family and friends. She enjoyed good health until one month before she died, when she had a stroke. She still laughed, sang songs, and looked almost normal until the end. In her final week, she had dreams/visions of Heaven and of countless angels which were so lovely that she didn’t want to return back to her normal world.

As a modern well-educated person of the 21st Century, I could easily discount her primitive mindset, which is not much different from older people of other faiths and cultures all around the world. As a young student I was an atheist and a complete skeptic. Now with decades more of life experience, I have glimmerings of a spiritual dimension beyond our ordinary waking world. I am more hesitant to throw out the wisdom that has been passed down to me from countless generations, regarding both life and afterlife. In future posts, I will explore some of these musings with you.

At age 60 nears, these ultimate questions loom larger for me, even though I have health, wealth and a world of opportunity still ahead. My future is bright, but seemingly unfathomable.