the Monday Musings column from that consultant bloke

It’s nearly two years since I hit three score years and ten, (Psalms, 90.10 KJV) and I’ve twice almost failed to add much to that score, with the Grim Reaper making further attempts to take me downstairs. Again he went away empty handed, and I am grateful to my medical teams for pulling me through from his grasp this year and last as their colleagues did back in 2012.

It’s good to be alive for the time being as I have the ambition to outlive the Berkshire Belle and fulfil the promise I made not to leave her. My medical teams commented that the will to live was strong in me and was a factor in my rapid recovery. So, another bullet dodged and I get to lurk around the planet for a bit longer.

My body tells me several times a day that I am getting on a bit. There are some things that I just can’t do anymore and my mind isn’t quite as sharp, although I can still run rings around a fair few of the people that I have to interact with. I am still reasonably fit, walking 6 miles or so most days of the week and I still have the hunger to learn that has been with me since my days in short trousers. Maybe time has not taken too much of a toll so far

One of the things that you encounter through life is obsolescence; cars, TVs, ‘fridges, ‘phones, computers, tablets and more. They come and they go. Some are replaced as soon as a newer model comes along, others soldier on, but performance suffers and maintenance needs get higher. A bit like humans, really.

Simple maths show that I don’t have too much longer to go. Ten years, twenty years? I might make 100, but I really don’t fancy being around that long. One of my mothers-in-law had a saying, “I’m of this world, but I’m not in it”. I understand what she meant now, for the world I live in is not one that I particularly enjoy.

I am becoming more insular. I used to be an avid follower of current affairs and would read at least one newspaper every day from cover to cover (when I was travelling I would bag a copy of every paper, English language, that the hotel had to offer and would get through most of them. Reading the same news in, say, the Guardian, the Telegraph and the Mirror gave breadth to any storyline, and I could come to an informed conclusion of my own. On a transatlantic flight comparing international news across The Times and the New York Times was also interesting.

These days I read very little of any paper, and if browsing the web, rarely get behind headlines. I do have some favourite columnists on both sides of the Atlantic, but, with not that much time left on the planet I choose to shut out things that annoy or upset me. I can’t be bothered anymore, and spend my time with my books and music. I don’t watch much TV either as it seems to have lost the ability to produce programmes with style and wit. It seems that modern audiences will loose interest if there is no example of violence or sex every two minutes. I was watching a drama programme made in 1969 the other say and the two featured characters spoke about four words in a two minute sequence. It worked, but I don’t see anything like that these days.

It’s another example of my obsolescence, and I do not care. I am happy in a world that is smaller than the one that I used to inhabit.