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| No need for an alarm clock these days |
This is being written at six o’clock on a Sunday morning – a time that I would not so long ago have been fast asleep. Yet I have been awake already for over an hour, have done my exercises and had a shower and breakfast and am now settling down to write before I take the train to Reading to see my daughter and her boyfriend before driving to Bristol with them to see my son, wife and daughter to celebrate his birthday and give him his presents.
I am not being particularly moral about this. It is just an example of my changing habits, which surely come with old age. As I grow old, I get tired around ten o’clock at night and simply want to go to bed. About seven to eight hours later I a wide awake and getting up seems the obvious thing to do. I am at my most productive early in the morning and often do an hour or two of ‘work’ before I get ready to face the world of work.
Having often found it an effort to get out of bed early in the morning – and usually doing so at the last minute – I now actually like doing so. The early morning is both peaceful as well as productive and you usually have the time to yourself with few distractions except the radio which I half-listen to as I write, only switching it off if I really need to concentrate on something. I may have to rub my eyes occasionally but having the time is worth it.
I still write me blogs and do editorial work on a magazine for tourist guides called Guidelines which I realise I have virtually taken over. I am careful not to push my own ideas in its publication, being a neutral umpire rather than an active and opinionated participant in many of the debates which are always a sign of a healthy audience. If people care enough to write in, then they are evidently committed to the continuation of the publication.
Maybe I am just at the stage of life when I am not that bothered with evening activities like going to parties (where I often leave early) and to the theatre or cinema, which I often do in the afternoon these days, when it is often cheaper and more convenient. It also means that I can get home in time to cook dinner rather than having to go out. It used to be a pleasure to have a night out but it now seems more like a chore.
What this comes from is a change of priorities as I grow older. Family seems more important than friendship to me. I would drop everything to look after my children, was devastated to hear my daughter say that she does not think she will have children of her own and enjoy spending time with them celebrating birthdays, Christmas, etc. Yet I do not mind to much losing contact with friends, even ones I have known for a long time, which surprises me.
The other thing I like is work and often do things – even if there is no money in them. ‘Work’ is a variable word for what I do (like these monthly essays and my weekly posts on tourist guiding). I have long given up on trying to make a living from writing but I still enjoy it and keep writing and editing, just as I continue to work as a guide, even though I am now in my eighth decade and my fifth as a guide. Retirement, as I have often said, is overrated.
So I will keep on working as long as I am capable of it – and will not indulge in lie-ins any more. This is not a moral but a practical decision. I simply do not feel tempted by them. As you grow older an early night seems more attractive than a late start in the morning.
Edwin Lerner
My other blog is diaryofatouristguide.blogspot.com
