Aging: running out of time and dreams (Part Two)

To pursue on that subject of ambition vs. curiosity, let me add that dreams may shrink in size but they grow in intensity. Curiosity is the antidote to the fear of limited time because it doesn’t require a future — only a present. At that point, it’s time to stop asking dreams to justify themselves. 

As we age, we demand that dreams be practical, meaningful, efficient, worth the time and the energy, but dreams don’t survive interrogation, they just survive permission. True, dreams don’t need guarantees; they need oxygen. And oxygen comes from allowing ourselves to explore without demanding a return on investment.

We must also use mortality as a focusing lens, not a threat. This is perhaps counterintuitive but extremely powerful. When time feels infinite, dreams scatter, but when time feels finite, dreams sharpen. To this, we could add that the awareness of limited time can either suffocate dreams or distill them. The trick is to let mortality clarify what truly matters instead of letting it intimidate us. 

Let’s also not forget that the biggest barrier to dreaming later in life is the belief that dreams must be large. This said the mind blooms when the dream is actionable, immediate, sized to fit our time-frame and emotionally resonant. A dream that begins today is a dream that survives. There’s no question that getting older is tricky because time suddenly feels like a narrow corridor instead of a wide, open plain. 

When we sense that the future is limited or uncertain, dreams become timid — they hesitate, they hide, or they never germinate at all. Still, dreams don’t disappear because we age; they disappear because we start demanding guarantees. We ask them to justify themselves, to prove they’re worth the time, the energy, the risk. And under that pressure, they retreat. 

So let’s remember that the way forward is to make dreaming lighter again. To shift from lifelong ambitions to seasonal ones. To replace ambition with curiosity. To let mortality sharpen our focus instead of dulling our imagination. Dreams bloom when they’re small enough to begin today, gentle enough not to intimidate us, and meaningful enough to stir something inside us. 

Time may be limited, but imagination isn’t — and the mind remains fertile as long as we give it permission to wander, explore, and play.

Aging: running out of time and dreams (Part One)

Getting older isn't for the faint at heart as we are under a pretty strong impression that the time ahead of us is more than limited and uncertain. So it’s pretty obvious that when we feel boxed-in in such a way, whatever dream we might generate gets scared, runs away in a hurry or doesn't even bother to germinate into our minds... 

The interrogation we’re left with is how can they pop-up into our mind and bloom no matter the time constraints we’re imposing on them? This is one of those questions that sits right at the intersection of psychology, philosophy, and the essence of aging.

When time feels finite, our mind becomes conservative. Dreams don’t die because we’re older; they die because the mind becomes like a risk‑averse accountant, constantly calculating “Is it worth it?” instead of "Let's try it" or “What if?” For instance, “Should I even buy a ski season pass this year? There's no absolute guarantee that I will make it through the winter, right?” The thought captures the emotional truth of that shift.

What we can add — and what will make our reflection more powerful, is a clearer articulation of how dreams still can emerge and thrive even under the pressure of limited time. What I’m convinced of, is about the psychological contraction of aging: that boxed‑in feeling is real. Then there’s the fragility of dreams under time pressure and the existential tension of still wanting to bloom while fearing the clock. One solution to that quandary is to shift from “lifelong dreams” to “seasonal dreams”. 

When we’re young, dreams are grand arcs, but as we grow older, dreams need to become seasonal in order to fit into our timeframe and thrive. They turn into smaller, sharper and more immediate inspirations. All dreams don’t need 20 years. They can be a 6‑month project, a 3‑week exploration or just a 1‑day experiment. Our minds need a proper scale in order to bloom!  

There’s another way to improve that situation by replacing ambition with curiosity. Ambition is heavy, curiosity is much lighter. If ambition asks, “Will this succeed?” curiosity asks, “What happens if I try?” We’ll continue that discussion tomorrow and explore that subtle change from ambition to curiosity, so if you're curious, please return!

Creativity, time and money…

It’s astonishing how far creativity alone can take us! The right idea doesn’t just make a difference — it changes the entire equation. Like a veggie garden, an idea thrives when it has time, the right environment, and a bit of tender care. Under those conditions, money becomes the least important ingredient. 

Creativity designs the path, time matures it, and money simply tags along if needed. Hard to argue against that. True, creativity is the ultimate force multiplier. When it’s present, time becomes an ally, and money becomes optional rather than essential. Ideas grow the way living things grow — not by force, but by conditions. 

Good ideas are cheap. Good environments are priceless. In fact creativity is not just the spark, it’s the architecture. It’s true that most people think creativity is the “aha moment”, but the real magic is that creativity designs the path so that time and money don’t have to work as hard. 

We all have different levels of creativity, and natural talent for that resource can vary widely, but anyone can be creative and find ideas in just avoiding waste, bypassing obstacles, re-framing most daily problems and turning constraints into advantages. It’s not just the seed — it’s the blueprint. As for time, it’s not a passive entity, it’s a real ingredient. 

Do like I do, treat time like soil, and that’s exactly right. Time reveals to us what’s essential, it filters out the noise, matures most ideas, eventually exposes shortcuts that weren’t visible at the start. If money can accelerate, time does transform. Money is the least creative resource and this is the part that people rarely want to admit. It only solves problems by adding, while creativity solves problems by subtracting. 

 If money buys hard work and effort, creativity buys elegance and it always wins in the long run. When I add “well intended”, I mean that intent is the hidden nutrient that’s also the quiet heart of the idea. In fact, intent keeps the idea aligned, prevents ego from hijacking the process and ensures that the result feels meaningful, not mechanical. 

A creative idea without good intent is just a weed. With good intent, it turns into a garden!

Time feels much longer under Trump!

It’s my impression, and that of many people my age, that as we grow older, time moves much, much faster except that in recent years, when Trump is in power, times come to a crawl. It must be that I fail to enjoy his style of government, and like a bored teenager waiting impatiently to be totally free and on his own, I long for more normalcy in the ways our government works and for a less exhausting atmosphere. 

What makes us feel that the time isn’t moving or on the contrary is moving far too fast? It’s a fact that time feels slower during stressful or emotionally charged periods because our brains process more information and are overrun with quantities of emotional memories, while routine or familiar experiences makes time feel faster. 

Political turbulence, like what we’re experiencing under Trump, does heighten emotional awareness and disrupt our usual sense of flow. It’s obvious that when we’re much younger, our perception of time isn’t fixed, but shaped by emotion, novelty, attention, and memory formation. 

As we age, we get fewer new experiences. Our daily life becomes more predictable and our brain compresses repetitive memories, making months or years feel like they flew by. 

In contrast, childhood and early adulthood are packed with “firsts”. Like our first day at school, first love, first job, first travel, which create dense pockets of memory Later life has fewer of these, so time feels thinner in retrospect. It’s also true that when events are intense or unsettling (like political upheaval), we pay closer attention and this slows our internal clock because the brain is processing more stimuli. We could say that familiarity speeds time while disruption slows it down. 

If political events feel chaotic or exhausting, they interrupt our rhythm just like we wait for a storm to pass. Like I just mentioned above, we’re like a teenager longing for freedom and becoming emotionally “stuck,” as we watch the clock and yearn for change. This mental state stretches our concept of time. On the contrary, when we’re immersed in something meaningful or enjoyable, we lose track of time. This is why going skiing, taking a vacation, doing creative work, or engaging in deep conversations seem to vanish in a blink. 

Positive engagement compresses time; fear, boredom or anxiety stretches it. Studies also show that dopamine levels, that influence motivation and pleasure, also affect time perception. Lower dopamine (often linked to stress or dissatisfaction) can make time feel slower. Political climates that feel oppressive or chaotic may subtly alter our neurochemical balance — not just our mood, but our sense of time itself. I’d rather have a world where time does fly. 

Without Trump, of course!

Another watch for me…

My old Casio watch died at the end of July after 7 years and 2 month of flawless and accurate function to the second, thanks to its ability to pick up atomic time calibration signals transmitted in Germany (Mainflingen), England (Anthorn), the United States (Fort Collins), China (Shangqiu), and Japan (Fukushima, Fukuoka/Saga).

Yet, it all its remarkable precision only cost me 35 dollars! As I have prioritized results as long as they were not nefarious in nature, so why purchase a more expensive mechanical watch that isn’t as precise and for the most part must be regularly rewound or have its batteries changed frequently? 

Founded in 1946 in Japan, Casio Computer Co., makes calculators, mobile phones, digital cameras, electronic musical instruments, and watches. It launched the first electronic calculator in 1957 (I got a pocket-size one in 1975). Also an early digital camera innovator, during the 1980s and 1990s, it developed numerous affordable home electronic keyboards for musicians along with an impressive selection of mass-produced and well-priced digital watches. 

My relation with watches is complex and is one I explained at length in this blog. 

This said, I still own a smartwatch that I use occasionally when I need to measure distances during my travels outside our home, but I needed a replacement for my old Casio, so I returned to the source and got myself a G-Shock. 

It's Casio’s upscale and sporty brand, this time a bit heavier, still “Atomic” in terms of time-keeping, but now solar-energy powered! It took me one day to keep it going, as its screen arrived totally blank to my house and I had to call Casio to be told what I had to do to bring it up to life. Hopefully that one might last me until I take my last breath. We’ll see...

My Solstice

Where I live in Park City, the summer solstice is happening today. Of course I know that it doesn’t always fall on June 21. For instance, this year it’s on June 20 for me and can go to June 22, while happening simultaneously for all of us. Weird, isn’t it? 

This variation is due to the difference between the calendar year and the Earth's orbit around the sun. As you astronomers know perfectly well, the summer solstice is the moment when the sun reaches its northernmost point from the equator. 

So why in the world do I celebrate it at 8:42 pm on June 20, while my friends in the European Community get it on June 21 at 4:42 am and the folks from Sydney, Australia enjoy it at its fullest on June 22 at 2:02 am? Just because it happens precisely at 2:42 am in Greenwich, and all the other places see it at their own respective local times! 

What else can I say? Obviously, that it’s going to be downhill from there in terms of daytime length, except of course for my friends living in the 32 countries located entirely or partially in the Southern Hemisphere. They can expect longer days! To make the matter even more complicated, thirteen of these countries straddle the equator, meaning that they’re in both Hemispheres.

As I was told when I was younger, life is complicated, so instead of wringing my hands, I wish everyone a good solstice, just make it summer or winter depending on where you live and how hot or cold you feel!

Another winter solstice

In our Northern Hemisphere, winter solstice’s day is my favorite time of the year as it signals light bottoming out before rebounding into the promise that tomorrow, everything will turn around towards a brighter future, for at least the next six months. That transition is filled with hope as the days grow longer, even if the drop into darkness is often less noticed because it’s not really appreciated. 

This is probably why that time of the year is filled with spiritual meaning and used by religions the world over to mark the transition between darkness and light, not to mention into a brand new year! That signals a symbolic rebirth as we’re marking the shortest day of the year and its darkest time that symbolizes death, dormancy, and the end of a cycle. 

Without smartphones, our ancestors were deeply connected to the natural world and its rhythms. The solstice was a crucial time for survival, marking the onset of winter and the need to prepare for the harsher months ahead. Celebrating that moment helped folks connect with the natural cycles and find hope and resilience during a challenging time. 

That’s why many cultures have developed unique rituals and celebrations around the winter solstice, starting with the pagan tradition of celebrating Yule, the festival honoring the return of the sun. Same thing with Christmas that, while having Christian roots, incorporates many pre-Christian winter solstice traditions. Many other cultures have their own unique celebrations and rituals associated with the winter solstice.

I was about to forget the scientific and astronomical meaning, starting with Planet Earth reaching that famous 23.5 degrees tilt relative to the plane of its orbit around the Sun. Sure, it’s the opposite if you live in Sydney or Buenos Aires as you enter a long, warm summer! In essence, the solstices mark the points of maximum and minimum solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface due to the tilt of the Earth's axis. 

All these considerations comfort my belief that its powerful symbolism of darkness and light, death and rebirth, make the winter solstice the most remarkable day of the year. At least for me. Now, enjoy the day!

Shrinking days are back!

Somehow, I missed yesterday summer solstice. I’m so conditioned in thinking it happens on June 21, that my persuasion blinded me once more. I’ve added a calendar to illustrate my recurrent mistake. 

Most of us know that the summer solstice happens when one of Earth's poles has its maximum tilt toward the sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern and Southern). 

For those of us who live up north, the summer solstice is the day with the longest period of daylight and shortest night of the year, when the sun is at its zenith. 

This also means a continuous daylight at either pole on that very day. The opposite is obviously the winter solstice, which we’ll discuss before Christmas. Now, the summer solstice holds a variety of meanings across cultures and history. For us, in the North, it marks the day with the longest period of sunlight. It's the official start of our summer, a time of warmth, growth, and abundance. 

Many cultures view it as the triumph of light over darkness. As days begin to shorten after the solstice, it’s also a reminder that summer's light won't last forever. In Europe it’s time for Bonfires, feasting, and maypole dancing. In Peru it’s time for ancient Inca festival honoring the sun god Inti and celebrating the agricultural year's midpoint. 

It’s also Litha in pagan traditions celebrating the sun's strength and the abundance of summer. For me it’s time to work on the family skis, repair their scratched bases, sharpen their dull edges and wax them with tender, loving care!

Getting the most out of my allotted time!

I don’t know about you, but I have the utmost respect for my time, at least for whatever time I have left on this plane, and I do everything I possibly can to put it to good use. At least, that’s my intention as well as my desire! 

Time in fact, all things being equal, is all we’ve got equally in life whether we’re rich or poor, and the more time moves on, the more we realize how little of that precious commodity remains available to us. 

While I’m not a fan of multitasking, I will do it whenever the task will allow it to maximize my time and get two things done instead of just one. This said, whatever I do, in that limited time of mine has to be focused on quality and fulfillment.

There’s the importance of doing what reality counts the most, in other words, my priorities. The activities or endeavors that bring me joy and a sense of purpose are the ones that truly matter and guide me for allocating my time. 

For instance, physical activity takes a huge portion of my free time, like walking, hiking and skiing in winter. I consider it crucial for both my physical and mental health as it gives me the energy and the appetite I need for the rest of the things I enjoy, like writing, reading, gardening, traveling and doing things around the house. 

I also get a healthy diet and a beneficial dose of sleep, both essential for my physical and cognitive health. Finally, I’m never afraid to say NO and politely decline commitments that don't align with my priorities. It frees up time and energy for what truly matters to me. 

And since time is so precious to me, that will be all for today!

Doing too much in a limited time-space

Like most humans, instead of regretting some of my actions or admitting certain failures, I’d rather win all the time! 

This cool feat is rarely possible though, and sometimes, I must realize that there are limits to what I can achieve. It’s not just that I’m older, but if a few problems begin cropping up, my anticipated success is not quite what I anticipated it to be. 

My problem is that I’m far too much time conscious and I always want to pack an excessive amount of tasks into a limited time-space that has no wiggle room, hoping that everything will run totally smoothly the first time. 

I count too much on my experiences, my secret tricks, the wonders of technology and lady luck. But I never leave much space for breakdowns, unforeseen issues and lady luck being sick, moody or absent when I expect it least!

Growing one’s patience

When I was a kid, I was never told that I could train my patience to become more reliable and more resilient. I was just told that “I had to be patient”, like this, out of the blue. I couldn’t understand that patience, like many other traits, could be nurtured, developed and expanded in my best interest and to help me successfully navigate life. 

So, as a result, my youth and a long portion of my adulthood have been marred by some very bad cases of impatience. As I’ve aged, impatience gradually lost its sharp angles and its fiery intensity. Today it’s much milder, but still exists, hiding in the many corners of my mind. It’s not that over the years, I haven’t done anything about it. 

For instance, delayed gratification has constantly made myself stronger and capable of waiting for things I wanted and ultimately. increased my happiness. But today there are still other steps that I must take to become more patient, like biding my time when I’m stuck in traffic, eating more slowly to appreciate my food, always seeking challenging tasks or not objecting to re-doing certain boring jobs. 

When I remember to do it, I try to be more patient with others, listen more actively and be more compassionate. I always need to remember that any new task comes with a definite learning curve and I must never forget to abide by it. I’m also better at accepting uncertainty as part of my life. Tending a veggie garden has also helped me a great deal in harnessing my patience. 

I simply need to go with the flow and wait for my salads to grow, regardless of my unreasonable wishes! Meditating daily has also helped me greatly in becoming more patient. So when all is said and done, patience is a growth strategy, so I remain patiently optimistic about my ability to wait to becoming more patient, while keeping a big smile on my face!

Time to remove the snow stakes?

I’m checking my calendar and it says:

“Removes snow stakes by March 30th”. 

I look at the window and I see that the snow level is still slightly above my 5 foot (152 cm) stakes and I say “That’s not the time yet!”. My next move is to check the weather forecast that is promising me almost 20 additional inches of snow between today and April 5th. 

I thought “Let’s postpone by at least a week, by then I’ll check the weather forecast again and decide...”

Changing the way we change time

My European friends did it last weekend, and this Saturday, we’ll replicate the same routine by moving our clocks back one hour, so we lose some of the precious sleep we’re entitled to, in order to satisfy an outmoded and unwarranted bureaucratic rule.

Well, there’s a small glimmer of hope though, last March, the US Senate passed legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent starting in 2023, ending the annoying twice-annual routine to allegedly promote longer afternoons and increase business. 

Now, it’s the turn of our House of Representatives to act, but it still seems divided on a bunch of issues, included whether it would be better to eliminate the change of clocks and decide between the regular time or go with daylight saving permanently. 

Once more, by the time the House get its act together, President Biden might be dead while in office or Elon Musk might veto the act altogether!

The time it takes to mourn...

I’m not religious, but according to Ecclesiates, one of the books of the Old Testament there’s a time to mourn and a time to dance and this is probably true. 

Two years ago, I lost my brother and two very good friends and it’s only now that my mourning is about over. Yet it took all that time to get over it and expunge all the sadness and the loss I fet about them. 

 True, time is always a great healer…

Where is all my time going?

Winter isn’t a good season in terms of my time that goes so fast. A lot of it goes into skiing. 

Not just pure skiing though! 

There is the “getting ready” part, including getting dressed, gathering ALL my stuff, driving over to the ski area, finding a spot to park (now an impossible task) and repeating that backward after skiing. 

Then there’s the rest of my day that consumes time like a dry sponge soaks up water. 

I have reached a point where it’s difficult to make time for now projects and new activities and I resent it to a large degree. There there’s the unavoidable question: “Should I cut into my skiing?” 

That, to me, is almost sacrilegious and I think that time and aging will, in time, take care of that reduction. As they say about fishing: “Time skiing can’t be deducted from a person’s life!”

The meaning of a new year

I’m one of these lucky people who can celebrate their birthday pretty close to the new year and both blend perfectly well! 

Some pity me for having two important events so close that they fear they’ll take away from each other, when in fact they create the opposite, synergistic effect. 

A new year is indeed a blank page or a slab of granite that’s waiting to receive personal marks on it, and it’s with the excitement the opportunity deserves that I look at it. 

Then, I feel privileged to have arrived at that advanced age and still be alive and healthy enough to appreciate it. Not everyone is given that chance! 

When I look back, I have traveled an impressive number of years that used to be considered very old not so long ago. Then, it gets really exciting when I can dream of what I’ll achieve during that new year. 

There’s my new year resolution, of course, and then plenty of positive and productive things I want to add to it, as well as keeping all the good and productive elements I have been able to build into my life along the way.

I will also endeavor to make peace with people I’m not a fan of, or have a dislike for, and remain positive and in control of my emotions as much as I can manage it. 

Finally, I’ll continue to appreciate the incredible privilege I was given to participate in life on this planet and each time there is difficulty, pain or sorrow in my life I will enthusiastically turn it into a challenge I can sink my teeth into. 

I wish you exactly the same in this happy and exciting new year!

When change accelerates

The other day, I was talking to another French expat and we were lamenting the fact that it becomes increasingly difficult to relate to our former buddies in the old country. 

Too much change over four to five decades is taking its toll, even though Covid-19 might be acting as a reunifying element as we now all share this condition all over the world, and have to live with it.

Yet, in our lives, change is the only constant, according to Heraclitus, and there’s nothing like being an expat to be impacted by it and appreciate how it’s creeping fast upon us. 

In the 44 years since I’ve live out of France, I’ve seen my former home country, its language, its culture gradually change while the United States and Park City have changed as well and I keep on changing everyday. 

So, it’s no wonder that in that flood of change surrounding us, many lose their bearings and long for a return to the “good old days” when things appeared certain, familiar and comfortable, but in fact were not really so. Sure, with 7.8 millions humans, there are more daily new ideas, inventions and achievements than ever before. 

Research is also better organized and accumulates knowledge and performance at an unprecedented pace, and all these factors place change on an exponential path headed up and we better fasten our seat belts in an attempt to keep up with the whirlwind of changes scheduled for tomorrow!

My battle against that shrinking time…

The more projects or fun activities I have, the less time I have to fit everything piece into a tight 24 hours. 

This seems to be my dilemma these days and I must admit that I end up wasting far less time than say, just ten years ago! 

Sure, I probably could do better, but I value everything I do so much that I don’t intend to make cuts anywhere. 

This scarcity also explains why days, weeks and years don’t last as long as they used to, and even though time is distributed perfectly equally to all of us humans – no inequity there - I seem to chronically run out of that precious commodity! 

Now, as rare, precious and healing some idle time might appear to be, I believe that if I had it, I would no longer have the wasteful impulse to squander it!

A November on steroids!

November is a transitional month that begins just after Halloween and ends after Thanksgiving. For us it’s usually marked with some natural snowfalls in various quantities and that’s when ski resorts open and start making artificial snow in earnest. 

We also have elections and this year was a big one. Up until now, and for the past four years, time has slowed down to a crawl as we were under the thumb of Dictator Trump.

In addition, this pandemic year, added more stress and dread to that tyranny, and also contributed to slow the normally speedy passage of time.

But now, with Trump leaving us soon and vaccines arriving to the rescue, fast times are back, so hang on to your seats and don’t wonder why November went in a flash!

Turning back the clock

Seventy-five percent of Americans would like to end Daylight Saving Time, but keep the summer time year-round so that the sun sets later in fall and winter. 

 I think it’s the same in the rest of the world where there’s such a seasonal adjustment twice a year. What we’ve done today though is cool. 

Yet, today, we just did something really cool by turning our clocks backward. Not by much, just one hour, but its a start. Why don’t we do it for one year or perhaps on decade worth, just to see what happens? Several decades would in fact be much better. 

We would recover our lost strength, our hair would turn black, blond or red again, and this would give us a new, wonderful outlook on life as we’re ready to start again.

I only hope we’d get to keep all the experience and good judgment we piled up a we were getting old!