J is in town again: this time for his longest period yet (4 weeks) on a long term visit pass and already warmly welcomed at the airport with passport less entry! Both he and M are slowly and surely taking progressive steps to staying together, just like J & N who exchanged vows earlier this year.
In fact, this is the first time our F6 team gathered since the wedding over two months ago. With all of these milestones, it’s only natural that I also think about mine.
My weekend walks (often for two hours) afforded me ample time to think this through carefully. In my case, the milestone I am approaching - just as the young ones step into their 2nd act - is my third act. The key is not about simply letting go and doing nothing. That is the surest path to purposelessness, boredom and perhaps dementia. Yes, it’s a retirement (from one stage of life) but an entry into another one filled with new adventures. It is joyful indeed that, at this age, I am still able to go on new journeys and discover what mysteries there are still in store.
Maya Angelou famously said, “You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been.”. So let me start there… where I have been.
Its never easy summarising 58 years but the long walks helped me frame this. In all these time, I have climbed seven pillars: ABCDEFG.
A is for Academics; and not just the classical primary, secondary and tertiary schools but rather lifelong learning. It’s been quite a journey from caning at the first day of school to Cambridge to fulfill a childhood dream of learning!
Bohemian - rhapsody of rebellion, a maverick not afraid to colour outside the lines: not a prefect, still a leader with stripes to prove it
Confidence plus communications (despite my lisp) coupled with charisma and courage (including the certainty that I should take 1 step back to go 2 step forwards)
Dreams - in the long car rides to Batang, I would stare out of the window and daydream. That dream became D who made them come true, including to develop houses and homes for us all to grow in.
Excellence - esp in my career. I really only understood what it meant to be world class when I was asked to help another country with their National IT Agenda. What a path it has been from Malacca to Singapore/Bangkok/Zurich to KL/Korea/China.
F is for family and friends and I count myself lucky to still have a handful of these to hang out with anytime we want. Indeed, the best ones were made back then.
G: I could be obnoxious and bask in the fact that I lived up to my zodiac animal, the Goat. But no, I don’t think I have been the greatest of all time. God is. And I am grateful that I had the opportunity to receive his blessings when I was at my lowest with a paralysed hand.
Having done all of the above what’s next?
First the numbers have to add up. The young ones told us oldies about FIRE: financially independent, retire early. I think we got the first part and so it’s now on to the next. Is it late or early… while we hope to have a good health span and yes, we hope this is early enough.
Over the next 3 years, as J, N & M serve out their bonds, I will also see out my time as a full time executive. I will then move into my PQRSTUV phase.
Purpose, and after profitable years past, will now be for People & Planet.
Questions remain. My intellectual curiosity remains. So I will keep searching for answers and not just doing so alone but rather, I will pose questions to my network and together we can answer some of them, whether informally in chats or recorded for posterity on Spotify and YouTube.
Relationships with family (of course one longs for grandchildren to dote on, including to pass on life lessons to, not to mention finding that one who inherited the chronicler gene) and friends (including or particularly with those that need repairing). I have taken stands all my life and it’s inevitable that I have also stepped on toes.
Stories, which I hope to tell in a book, in a screenplay or perhaps in a movie!
Travel … but not in snippets of sights and sounds but rather in journeys extended by long walks, wheels over rails and gliding over water (WWW).
Unfinished business - whether on boards or with clients and colleagues or with my car collection and generally tidying up all my collections
And finally to V. I think I have this far led a voracious, sometimes volcanic, sometimes valiant but always a visceral life (my wife calls me boomz as I always fill up the room). As you can tell though these are emotive words though they thematically belong to the vivid end of the spectrum. If not for my dear wife, the love of my wife, who balances my universe… I would not have had the opportunity to do all I have been able to and more importantly, I would not have learnt how to be vulnerable, to be vigilant and to be virtuous (nice connect to the last letter of my current act).
I hope my next act will be several decades long. I hope to be in good health to enjoy them all. And most of all, I thank God for the opportunity to plan this and to be able to look forward to the mysteries ahead and may they unfold slowly for me along the way ahead.
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