Francis Berger
  • Blog
  • My Work

Fifty and Over a Thousand

7/27/2021

25 Comments

 
The two numbers represent milestones of sorts. 

The first refers to the half-century odometer click of age marking my birth on this day fifty years ago.

According to Victor Hugo, "forty is the old age of youth; fifty is the youth of old age." Though I don't quite agree with the first part of this observation - the old age of youth occurred somewhere in my mid-to-late twenties for me - I do believe fifty marks the beginning of old age.

Of course, in our youth-obsessed world - in which most modern people sincerely envision themselves windsurfing and bungee jumping at seventy-five - harboring this view of old age is anathema. The common consensus holds that fifty is firmly embedded in that nebulous cloud known as middle-aged, which at last check extended somewhere from the ages of forty-five all the way to retirement age.

As far as I'm concerned, that's all rubbish - particularly from a spiritual perspective. The truth of the matter is that the years between thirty and forty are middle-aged for most people. Anything after that is - at best - "late" middle age, but more appropriately "young" old age. 

So, at fifty I consider myself firmly entrenched in the realm of early old age. I greet this development with joy because I can now "officially" begin to distance myself from my youthful desires and worldly ambitions and dedicate myself more fully to spiritual matters, which, as Bruce Charlton has noted, should mark the true purpose of old age anyway. 

This doesn't mean that fifty marks the beginning of my withdrawal from the world, but that my activity in the world will be driven and flavored by a refined set of motivations and purposes that are quite different from the motivations and purposes that fueled me when I was twenty, thirty, or even forty years old.

Luckily, I am still in possession of (most) of my physical and mental faculties at fifty - hey, Leonidas was in his fifties when he fought and died at Thermopylae -  and I still possess a great deal of energy, but my utilization of these faculties and energy has changed and continues to change - and I regard these as changes for the better. 

So, Happy Birthday to me. Since I'm not all that comfortable with being celebrated, I'm going to commemorate the event by tiling a bathroom. In the evening, I'll have a nice dinner with the family. 

The second number refers to the number of posts on this blog, which at some point in the past month reached and surpassed the thousand mark.

The bulk of these thousand posts were written in the past three years after I shifted the focus of the blog from lame self-promotion for my independently published novel to a blog about spiritual learning. To this day, I am not exactly sure what inspired this shift, but it has proven to be immensely beneficial from a spiritual perspective.

A big shout out to Bruce Charlton, William Wildblood, William James Tychonievich, Kevin McCall, and Amo Boden for their support of this blog. Also, many thanks to Sasha at Synlogos and Islanti at New World Island for including this blog on their aggregrator sites. Extended thanks to other bloggers and aggregrators who have shared and linked my work through their pages. 

Lastly, a big thanks to my readers whose comments and insights have often added depth and dimension to my scribblings and have helped facilitate the spiritual learning I mentioned above.

Here's to a thousand more posts, God willing!
25 Comments
Hari Seldon
7/27/2021 07:03:17

I've always thought of "middle-aged" as one's 40s and 50s, but that's a very modern idea, and probably one that has caused a lot of grief (and wasted time). In any case, happy birthday to you!

Reply
Francis Berger
7/27/2021 07:58:35

@ Hari - Thanks!

From a purely technical perspective, one's forties may be classified as middle-aged, assuming one lives to be an octogenarian, but for me age is more about what one should be focusing on in life rather than a number to be downplayed, refuted, or denied.

I see the ages and stages of life roughly as the following:

0-12 - childhood
14 - 17 - adolescence
18 -25 - young adulthood
26 - 35 - mature adulthood
36 - 45 - late adulthood
46 -55 - early old age
56 - 65 - mid-old age
66+ - late old age

The list above makes sense when you consider that until quite recently it wasn't uncommon for Western people to be parents in their late teens/early twenties and grandparents in their forties or early fifties. The fertility of women is another factor to consider.

I, on the other hand, didn't become a parent until I was 40, which is late adulthood (a veritable geezer). I'm not saying this is wrong or bad, but it makes me wonder what the heck I was focusing on when I was in my twenties and thirties.





Reply
bruce charlton
7/27/2021 08:24:49

To celebrate - a rousing chorus of a song I used to enjoy:

Happy Birthday to you
I went to the zoo
I saw a gorilla
I thought it was You!

Reply
Francis Berger
7/27/2021 17:04:20

Thanks, Bruce! I don't mind being mistaken for a gorilla. Better than being mistaken for a wombat or a sea slug.

Reply
William James Tychonievich link
7/27/2021 09:41:02

Many happy returns, old-timer!

Reply
Francis Berger
7/27/2021 17:04:48

@ Wm - Cheers, sonny boy!

Reply
Craig Davis
7/27/2021 14:10:08

Happy Birthday! Enjoy the day and congratulations on the 1000th post. I don't comment much, but I read all your posts and appreciate your contributions to the advancement of Romantic Christianity.

Reply
Francis Berger
7/27/2021 17:05:14

Much appreciated, Craig. Thanks.

Reply
islanti link
7/27/2021 14:13:07

Happy birthday, my friend. I'm very grateful to have discovered this blog, which happened to be at the perfect time. Your writings have been immensely helpful to me.

Sincerely,
David Earle

Reply
Francis Berger
7/27/2021 17:05:50

Thanks, David. That made my day.

Reply
William Wildblood
7/27/2021 17:21:11

Happy birthday, Frank. You appear to have most of your hair too.

Reply
Francis Berger
7/27/2021 21:44:06

Thanks, William. "Appear" is the operative word concerning my hair.

Reply
Carol
7/27/2021 19:54:46

Happy 50th birthday!!
And, while I offer "congratulations" on reaching 1000 posts - it seems more apropos to say, "thank you"...thank you for putting in all the time, effort, insight, and everything else necessary to reaching 1000 posts!!

I'm in the U.S., so with the time difference, I imagine you are enjoying your birthday dinner about now -
- so I'll say that I hope your special day has been happy and fulfilling!
Carol

Reply
Francis Berger
7/27/2021 21:45:49

Thanks for the kind words and warm wishes, Carol. And thank YOU for being a reader of this blog. God bless.

Reply
Jake
7/27/2021 23:46:36

Happy birthday, friend and blogger.
I'm a bit older than thee, and also feel great physically, but feel the urge to put more energy into spiritual and other pursuits than mere... ambition.
It's to be celebrated.
Good luck with the projects!

Reply
Francis Berger
7/28/2021 07:10:07

Much appreciated, Jake.

Reply
Sean Fowler link
7/28/2021 00:05:08

Many happy returns francis. 50 oribits around the sun. Still here, with a soul that by all appearances seems very much intact. No mean feat.
Always a pleasure to read your posts and to observe your unfailing kindness in your replies. Looking forward the next thousand.

Reply
Francis Berger
7/28/2021 07:13:06

@ Sean - Thanks! I hope I have another 1000 in me.

Reply
David Llewellyn Dodds
7/28/2021 01:30:35

Mnogaia leta! (which I suppose can also apply to wishing you many more years full of posts: is there a Hungarian equivalent?)

The great Lewis and Short Latin dictionary tells me that in ancient Rome 'adulescentia' lasted "from the 15th to the 30th year", while a 'juvenis' was "one who is in the flower of his or her age (mostly of persons older than adolescentes and younger than seniores, i. e. between twenty and forty years)" (hmm, is it from 20 or 30? - another Latin dictionary I checked says 'senior' was mostly used for those between 46 and 60). T.H. White, in his translation of a Latin Bestiary of the Twelfth Century, notes its discussion of ages is mostly quoted "from the Etymologiae of Isidore, the early seventh-century Archbishop of Seville", and includes "Manhood, the fourth, is the healthiest of all ages, finishing at fifty. The fifth state of the older man is Maturity, which is a decline from youth into age, not yet old but no longer young".

Reply
Francis Berger
7/28/2021 07:14:27

@DLD - "The fifth state of the older man is Maturity, which is a decline from youth into age, not yet old but no longer young".

Yes, that matches Hugo's observation.

Reply
Michelle
7/28/2021 03:21:05

Happy birthday! Thank you for all of your posts. Now is the perfect time to change your picture from 'man basking in the glow of a brush fire' to a 'contemplative young old man in front of a dilapidated out building'. ('Young old grout guy' comes a close second)

Reply
Francis Berger
7/28/2021 07:15:45

@ Michelle - Many thanks. And you're right - I should consider updating the photo. Young-old guy standing before dilapidated out building sounds like a good idea.

Reply
NLR
7/28/2021 05:40:48

Happy Birthday

Reply
Francis Berger
7/28/2021 07:16:07

Thanks, NLR.

Reply
Bookslinger
7/28/2021 21:45:52

Don't forget a walking stick and some kind of peasant/villager hat for the photo. And maybe retro-style glasses for a scholarly/contemplative look.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Blog and Comments

    Blog posts tend to be spontaneous, unpolished, first draft entries ranging from the insightful and periodically profound to the poorly-argued and occasionally disparaging.
     

    Comments are moderated. Anonymous comments are never published (please use your name or a pseudonym). 

    Emails welcome:

    f er en c ber g er (at) h otm   ail (dot) co m
    Blogs/Sites I Read
    Bruce Charlton's Notions
    Meeting the Masters
    From The Narrow Desert
    Synlogos ✞ Aggregator
    New World Island  
    New World Island YouTube
    ​Steeple Tea
    Berdyaev.com
    Adam Piggott
    Fourth Gospel Blog
    The Orthosphere
    Junior Ganymede

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012

    Picture
    A free PDF is also available in My Work. 
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.