So, life after 60? Buckle up, I'll tell you, this isn’t some mindfulness post,
it’s a full-throttle, napkin-scribbled philosophy of "Why the hell not?"
It is living a life according to your whims, eternally on the move and doing
different things and meeting new and different people. Food, music, and
women are what a real man should live for. Or rather, you don’t need to live
for anything at all.
It is the day-to-day pleasures of life that lead you, attract you, without
questions of meaning of why and why not. Be blasphemous, simple, stop
worrying about others. God and the devil are one and the same. Live life and
expect to die in the very next minute.
Ditch the instruction manual
In his novel Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis tells the story of how his
life was changed by an accidental encounter with Alexis Zorba, a 60-year-old
thrill seeker. At the time he met Zorba, Kazantzakis, then in his early
thirties, was a man living his life through books, vicariously. Zorba taught
him how to stop being a spectator of his own life and relish it.
Zorba doesn’t believe in God, the devil, or your mother’s guilt trips. He
believes in Zorba — not because he’s special, but because he’s the only
beast he can control.
Zorba tells Kazantzakis this parable:
If you get a magnifying lens and see the water we drink, an engineer told me, you’ll find out that the water is full of tiny tiny worms, invisible to the eye. You’ll see the worms and you won’t drink. You won’t drink and you’ll die of thirst. Break the lens, boss, break the damned lens, and the worms will vanish at once, you’ll drink water, and you’ll quench your thirst!
Stop thinking, start dancing
Do you want pure love, pure fun, pure creativity, pure happiness? Then, look
closely at anything, you’ll always find worms. And you won’t love, you won’t
have fun, you won’t create, you won’t be happy. Even the best things in life
will disgust you. And you’ll drag your thirsty soul around and fear life and
the world, because it can’t give you the purity you desire. Fuck all that,
break the lens.
The problem with the common sense is that by always taking it you’ll never
learn anything about yourself. The common sense is uninformative and boring.
As Zorba put it - "the faster this whole thing goes to hell the better!".
Reject common sense (it’s overrated)
Society says: "Save for retirement, eat kale, don’t flirt with disaster." The
common sense is just fear in a business suit. Want freedom? Cut the leash.
Yes, even the "spiritual" one. Enlightenment won’t pay your tab.
Retirement plans? A fantasy. The only pension you need is a good health.
Nostalgia? Stop lying. The past wasn’t "better," you were just younger and
dumber.
Truth? Doesn’t exist. Everything is a lie, especially the stuff you believe
in.
Cut the leash
Frequently what you call freedom a large house, nice job, kids, whatever,
is just slavery with a longer leash. To cut that leash you must stop
calculating your life and measure everything you do, Stop balancing your
profits and losses. It is the calculating mind that loves the leash.
The longest leash is an ideal for something. "God, country, buddha,
healthy food, climate change, ideas". How easily you become a slave to the
lofty ideals.
But as you grow older, as time is passing by, you are becoming more and
more a coward. With age you lack the courage to do or endure unpleasant
things. Some of you appear as cynics but actually you are just timid,
easily intimidated person.
The house that you own, the money in retirement fund etc. do not really
protect you. They fool you. There is no security or any rest in this
world, the picture of old people on the beach is not realistic. It does
not show, the pills for high blood pressure, diapers, the lack of sleep,
rheumatism etc..
Live like a tiger
There’s no meaning to your life, no reward for achieving all the things
you've achieved. And please, stop saying that things were better back then
in your youth. When you were young, the life was cheaper, happier and
people were nicer. Oh well.
Two years ago I made my last will. Upon my death my body is to be cremated
and ashes spread in water and earth. No reminder of my existence should be
left. What is left, now, is to celebrate life, it's the only thing I can
do...
Be courageous, live and be free with full understanding that there is
ultimate mystery awaiting you on the other side. Live, fight like it
matters...
Final wisdom (or lack thereof)
Go ahead—live like the world’s a temporary tavern and you’re the drunk
poet in the corner, scribbling nonsense on napkins. Eat, dance, love, and
when death comes… laugh in its face.
(or at least die trying.)
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