Looking back over the first 60 years of life, there is much I’m proud of, much I have done and much I would have liked to do differently. How will that guide me for the next 60 years?
I found the Wadsworth poem on Neal Stephenson’s website at https://www.nealstephenson.com/social-media.html. So poetic:
Mezzo Cammin (“Middle of the Road”) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Half my life is gone, and I have let
The years slip from me and have not fulfilled
The aspiration of my youth, to build
Some tower of song with lofty parapet.
Not indolence, nor pleasure, nor the fret
Of restless passions that would not be stilled,
But sorrow, and a care that almost killed,
Kept me from what I may accomplish yet;
Though, half-way up the hill, I see the Past
Lying beneath me with its sounds and sights,–
A city in the twilight dim and vast,
With smoking roofs, soft bells, and gleaming lights,–
And hear above me on the autumnal blast
The cataract of Death far thundering from the heights.
