These 70andOlder postings moved from two a month to one every two or three months. Now I have lost interest in national politics. What’s happening? Is this part of an inevitable winding down that fits my age? It is time to play the pokies (that’s what the one-armed bandits are called in Australia), but for me it means poking around, trying to understand what my actions might be telling me.
Part of my disengagement seems reasonable. Our President’s daily assaults are repetitions of his narcissism that get boring and depressing if I think about them too much. He is so skilled at media domination it’s hard to avoid his intrusions and stay current with the news. When I skip articles that refer to him, his acolytes, or the results of his behavior, there is little left. 
Recently I found an interesting article by a woman who adopted two baby wombats whose mother was killed by a car. Another was the discovery of a new marsupial in New Guinea that was previously only known from fossils thousands of years old.
Yes, my world has shrunken. I’m looking locally, donating only to nearby poverty and immigrant-support groups, volunteering at a local primary school helping immigrant children learn English, looking for ways to help local leaders hold less adversarial public meetings, and using my architecture and construction knowledge to help friends and nonprofit groups. I feel good using these life-learned skills in slightly new, age-appropriate ways. While this gives my life purpose and meaning, counterbalancing our increasingly crazy national leadership, I know there is greater significance to my actions.
Why we do what we do has many reasons, mostly subconscious. So what’s going on? What is cooking back there in my Barry brain? Is this just detachment or am I changing course? I feel happy, smiling at the birds, having fun with the first graders I help with reading, feeling good thinking about and being with my friends and family, especially my grandchildren as they move through their late teen years, dipping their toes into adulthood. What’s not to be happy about? Only that stuff out there, way beyond my influence.
Our culture provides endless opportunities and choices, including our current social media’s incessant invitations to be panicky and anxious. We don’t have to go down their profit-driven rabbit hole. But social media is compelling. Sometimes it is hard to see that we can meet our needs for purpose and connection in healthier ways.
For me, it’s age-appropriate to choose reflection and happiness. I’ll wait a month or two, to see what this maybe-disconnecting might tell me and where it is leading me. For sure, something is cooking. Is it contentment, or maybe a new direction, or . . . . ?
Whatever it is, I’m soon walking outside to watch the birds splashing in my freashly filled birdbath, a gift from my partner. I feel another smile coming on. You’re welcome to join me.
Thank you for reading.
Barry
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