I can totally relate to this while writing my coming-of-age memoir : “reviewing the infatuation and the betrayals and hurt, listening to music of the 60s and 70s to grab more memories that might animate any insight I could find. In short, as I worked on this I was troubled and depressed, but I couldn’t stop.”
I love your song let all the fruits fall down. What a discovery for me. Congratulations on finding success in your third act.
YES to all of this: "Having lived through both the highs and the crashes, I could tell you, my younger self, that creativity itself will always be the sustaining thing. This drive to create, to express, to share, is a nutrient that has always been essential for my well-being and managing the darkness. I’ve found it’s the same with many other creative types—we need to have, at all times, something we’re crafting or discovering. Without it, something is missing."
Great story that resonates with me, especially the "You're great/you suck" swing of my view of my own creative pursuits. It's taken me 40 years to make my writing my full-time work as I can now land between these two extreme opinions of my creative output. I think songwriting seems like the natural evolution for you creatively and I hope you continue to pursue it as your "next big thing."
Such a great read. Who doesn’t wonder what they’d say in their own letter to their younger self as they read this? It’s a reckoning: Have I become who I wanted to become? How gloriously naive, wildly inaccurate, and also uncannily prophetic are our childhood aspirations? Personal growth is tantamount to blindly rocketing through space filled with flying objects; and reflecting on it is a brave undertaking. We don’t even know how many near misses we’ve had, and the ones we can acknowledge help define us. I am afraid of the great reckoning. This writing from Binnie gives me a little courage and fuels my determination to make it to 70 with few regrets.
The thought that I just might be giving someone else courage is a wonderful one. I love your phrase "personal growth is tantamount to blindly rocketing through space...." Thank you.
The pandemic came, and proclaimed me elderly, vulnerable, compromised—a group justified in being afraid, very afraid of the virus, of being hospitalized, and possibly dying a horrible death, intubated and alone. Afterward, when others began to step back out into the world, I was leery. My hair had turned completely gray [...]. The existential knocks at the door, the bell ringing of mortality, was becoming less and less ignorable. I began to think about death constantly.
Then something completely unexpected happened."
We're not supposed to point out anything related to our aging, but you did and it resounds. Still, for the first time in my life, I wrote a novel. Now I'm re-writing it. I'm entirely too old, and I'm doing it.
Oh, this was precious. I identified with so so much of it, especially the part about getting praise at school. Becoming a songwriter in your 70s encourages me to pick my guitar back up and start singing/performing again.
Thank you for this. I have long thought that each of us is, at whatever point in her life, all the ages she has ever been. The 70-year old *includes* the 17-year old and they have much to teach each other.
thank you for the note. Your idea fits with certain quantum explorations, that suggest that there are multiple realities occurring simultaneously. I’m not sure I have that exactly right, but!!!
Thanks for a wonderful essay. You return to music is so inspiring to me, also child of the 60s who sort of lost her way with music and is now finding her way back to songwriting. How thrilling it must be for you to see your work produced on an album. So inspirational. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Binnie! Inspirational and a great reminder that setbacks are the pauses that allow us to recalibrate to push forward. And that there is no expiration date on taking the plunge.
Binnie! I love this so much. I'm a therapist who teaches inner child work, and the way you talk to your younger self with so much love, compassion, and tenderness is heartwarming. I also love how your creativity sustained you through the loneliness and dopamine seeking of your youth. I know those feelings too. And, I am so thrilled for you that your poetry has found new life in music in your third act. The song you shared is stunning. Bravo. And yes, physical therapy is totally a social activity.
Thank you Binnie for sharing this post! I’m a Jersey girl as well, and we are both in our 70s!
Bravo on your success with music and writing song lyrics.
To me, it’s the magic of those synchronicities that come in our lives like stars sweeping through the sky! Those chance meetings with people, or events, that develop into creative activities.
I can totally relate to this while writing my coming-of-age memoir : “reviewing the infatuation and the betrayals and hurt, listening to music of the 60s and 70s to grab more memories that might animate any insight I could find. In short, as I worked on this I was troubled and depressed, but I couldn’t stop.”
I love your song let all the fruits fall down. What a discovery for me. Congratulations on finding success in your third act.
So glad you could relate! What's the title of your memoir?
YES to all of this: "Having lived through both the highs and the crashes, I could tell you, my younger self, that creativity itself will always be the sustaining thing. This drive to create, to express, to share, is a nutrient that has always been essential for my well-being and managing the darkness. I’ve found it’s the same with many other creative types—we need to have, at all times, something we’re crafting or discovering. Without it, something is missing."
Great story that resonates with me, especially the "You're great/you suck" swing of my view of my own creative pursuits. It's taken me 40 years to make my writing my full-time work as I can now land between these two extreme opinions of my creative output. I think songwriting seems like the natural evolution for you creatively and I hope you continue to pursue it as your "next big thing."
so glad it resonates.
Such a great read. Who doesn’t wonder what they’d say in their own letter to their younger self as they read this? It’s a reckoning: Have I become who I wanted to become? How gloriously naive, wildly inaccurate, and also uncannily prophetic are our childhood aspirations? Personal growth is tantamount to blindly rocketing through space filled with flying objects; and reflecting on it is a brave undertaking. We don’t even know how many near misses we’ve had, and the ones we can acknowledge help define us. I am afraid of the great reckoning. This writing from Binnie gives me a little courage and fuels my determination to make it to 70 with few regrets.
The thought that I just might be giving someone else courage is a wonderful one. I love your phrase "personal growth is tantamount to blindly rocketing through space...." Thank you.
YES, YES, YES! to:
"You, my younger self, were back.
The pandemic came, and proclaimed me elderly, vulnerable, compromised—a group justified in being afraid, very afraid of the virus, of being hospitalized, and possibly dying a horrible death, intubated and alone. Afterward, when others began to step back out into the world, I was leery. My hair had turned completely gray [...]. The existential knocks at the door, the bell ringing of mortality, was becoming less and less ignorable. I began to think about death constantly.
Then something completely unexpected happened."
We're not supposed to point out anything related to our aging, but you did and it resounds. Still, for the first time in my life, I wrote a novel. Now I'm re-writing it. I'm entirely too old, and I'm doing it.
do it; you'll be proud that you did
I woke up this morning and found myself inspired by something you wrote*. Thanks.
*Letter to my younger self #8.
Mightily inspirational -- without the push to slap a smiley face on everything to do with aging or to do it perfectly. Kudos and cheers.
Oh, this was precious. I identified with so so much of it, especially the part about getting praise at school. Becoming a songwriter in your 70s encourages me to pick my guitar back up and start singing/performing again.
so glad you liked it! I’d like to go back to school: GRADE school! and get that basic praise — for basic things! Yes, pick that guitar back up.
The guitar is sitting in my bedroom in its case where I am reminded every day that I want to play it, now I have to DO it.
let me know when you take it out of its case.
I will!
Thank you for this. I have long thought that each of us is, at whatever point in her life, all the ages she has ever been. The 70-year old *includes* the 17-year old and they have much to teach each other.
thank you for the note. Your idea fits with certain quantum explorations, that suggest that there are multiple realities occurring simultaneously. I’m not sure I have that exactly right, but!!!
Thanks for a wonderful essay. You return to music is so inspiring to me, also child of the 60s who sort of lost her way with music and is now finding her way back to songwriting. How thrilling it must be for you to see your work produced on an album. So inspirational. Thanks for sharing.
Hi there, sister of the sixties! Yes, I would say the album is one of the highlights of my life! Thanks for appreciating
Thank you, Binnie! Inspirational and a great reminder that setbacks are the pauses that allow us to recalibrate to push forward. And that there is no expiration date on taking the plunge.
"....setbacks are the pauses..." love it! Thank you, Jane.
Binnie! I love this so much. I'm a therapist who teaches inner child work, and the way you talk to your younger self with so much love, compassion, and tenderness is heartwarming. I also love how your creativity sustained you through the loneliness and dopamine seeking of your youth. I know those feelings too. And, I am so thrilled for you that your poetry has found new life in music in your third act. The song you shared is stunning. Bravo. And yes, physical therapy is totally a social activity.
Thank you Binnie for sharing this post! I’m a Jersey girl as well, and we are both in our 70s!
Bravo on your success with music and writing song lyrics.
To me, it’s the magic of those synchronicities that come in our lives like stars sweeping through the sky! Those chance meetings with people, or events, that develop into creative activities.
Hey there Jersey girl! you are absolutely right about the unexpected synchronicities! Thank you for your comment.
I’m 63 and want to write music someday. You are an inspiration, Binnie!
you'll do it! Thank you....
As someone writing a coming-of-age memoir at 62, I love the way you talked to your younger self. Thank you so much!
glad you can relate, and thanks go to editor Sari Botton for her format for this column
It's always comforting to find out I am not the only one experiencing these unfamiliar OLDSTER in the making feelings! Rock on!
:)