I find myself entertaining a brand new challenge, one not usually embarked upon at my “advanced” age. More on that later.

Meanwhile, I can’t help but notice these days, especially on fb (thank you all my crone and cronette friends!), various amazing photos of “old people” not only who are not afraid to “show their age,” but who “do their thing,” no matter what.

This “do my thing” motto is a signature of the Pluto in Leo generation, (1938-58), otherwise known as the “Me Generation.” Amazingly enough, despite our generational narcissism, the millennials who I’m surprised don’t hate us for still taking up most of the psychic space on the planet, also love our music! In fact, they gravitate to our music just as much as we do and did.

So it’s not surprising that the Rolling Stones No Filter Tour, postponed due to the plandemic, is rolling out again in 2021, this time in North America. With, of course, my favorite, Keith Richards, who claims to have quit smoking!

“After learning it causes premature aging.” Hilarious! He also says that he found it harder to quit smoking than to quit heroin. I too, found it extremely difficult to quit smoking, and finally did so. I date the beginning of my real life to that inflection point.

My generational narcissism also includes female performers, of course, and some of them are still on stage as well. I especially love this wonderfully vulnerable photo of Patti Smith (born 1946) and Joan Baez (born 1941), taken in Germany a few weeks ago.

Then there are those of  “advanced” age who are still tackling physical challenges. For example:

I wanted to only include those still alive in this compendium, but two photos with stories stick out as wanting to be included. The first, a woman, who set out at age 63 to do what most people would never do at any age.

YEAH, CRONE!

The other is Oliver Sacks, who’s gratitude is, I feel echoed, in the photo with Patti Smith and Joan Baez above. Truly, gratitude, for all of life’s offerings, the highs and the lows, may be the most treasured gift of the aging process.

Okay. Now I will spill a bit about what I’m working on, to be unveiled at my 79th birthday party — the beginning, remember, of my 80th year! Luckily, I have long known that “the body is primary.” In my case, this means that I walk (with puppy Shadow) three to four miles every morning, and that I do another hour that includes yoga, chi kung and tai chi every afternoon. Two hours of “physical culture” per day. Because truly . . .

So, because I am still in relatively good health, I can ignite new projects, new initiatives, and even have a reasonable goal of achieving them. As to this new project (which I add to the current priorities of one blog post per day, and a bit of work on my archival Recapitulation Project per day as well), let me just say, involves a performance, and that I am practicing secretly, on my daily walks. Will make a video of the performance on my birthday, December 19, and share it here.