I confess, I never liked fantasy or science fiction. As a child, I was terrorized by fairytales; as an adult, by films like 2001: A Space Odyssey. Of course, as a high school English teacher, I taught Le Guin. Kids love it. It wasn’t until I moved to Oregon late in life that I realized she is a patron saint around here.
And it wasn’t until recently, I inadvertently discovered that, like me, as a superannuated adult, Le Guin started keeping a personal journal that she wrote as a blog. Her personal posts were collected and published in a book in 2017, a year before she died in Portland. No Time to Spare — Thinking About What Matters.
In this compendium, she is concerned with a couple of topics that we here my “retirement community” also muse about.
One : Bodily maintenance. Le Guin noted that it takes an inordinate amount of time to maintain an old body. I have noticed that too recently! I alternately embrace it and resent it. I am grateful that there are meds to regulate my blood pressure, my cholesterol, my heart rate. At the same time, I resent the few minutes I spend on Sunday nights sorting my pills out in those little compartments labeled for each morning and evening for every day of the week. Likewise, I am grateful that I employ several specialists to help me manage this shockingly degenerating body that I inhabit, while being annoyed at the precious time it takes up. I see myself as healthy and strong and active. Yet I have a doctor to manage my arthritis, one to manage my A-fib, one to contribute fake joints, one to monitor my kidney function, one to mend torn tendons, and one called a PCP, who is sort of like a juggler. They are all nice folks. All brilliant. And all about 12 years old.
Two: At our age, we have no time to waste. Le Guin wrote that she really doesn’t recognize the concept of “spare time” because all her time was occupied, not wasted — perhaps by daydreaming, or doing business, or reading, writing, thinking, filling her bird feeders, staring out her window. She was occupied by living. At my age, I have no time to spare.
