The 25 Year Cycle

Let's look back at when I turned 25 years old. This was April 3rd 1974. It was a fairly bleak time. I was in Adelaide and I remember going to see "The Exorcist" on my own. I don't know where Raelene was. Neither of us had managed to find any work since the start of the year and a couple of weeks later we were on our way to Sydney in the hope that the job market was more promising there.

Indeed it was and we both found employment quickly but I was quite unhappy in my job as a teacher for the remainder of the year (May to December). At the start of 1975, I began at AMP on Circular Quay as a Trainee Actuary which I had no interest in but the work companions were genial and one of them set me on the road to becoming a Psychiatric Nurse. I'd say that my 26th birthday marked the start of a new era and that the year from my 25th to my 26th was a difficult and transitional year.

Fast forward to my 50th birthday in 2019. I was on the road in China on April 3rd that year, cycling with a group of school students. It was my final year at the Australian International School in Singapore and I wasn't in great spirits. Toward the end of the year I made the happy choice of taking a job in Jakarta and by April 3rd of 2000, the occasion of my 51st birthday, my new life was beginning. Once again the year between my 50th and 51st birthdays was difficult and transitional.

I turned 75 in 2024 and the next month I had a fall that caused me considerable health problems. Other health problems dogged me throughout the year and I had the feeling that my life had run out of steam. I was just marking time. I still have that feeling but other health problems emerged soon after my 76th birthday and something big is coming up in June judging by my chart. So once again my 75th to 76th years have been difficult and transitional and a major change is almost upon me. I'm sure I'll have a lot to write about on this blog in the days to come, assuming I'm able to write at all.

My Grandfather's Clock

My father gave me his father's gold pocket watch when I left home in late 1973 and it was stolen a couple of years later in a house break-in. He was clearly disappointed when I told him later and I was upset by its loss when it happened but there's was nothing to be done except to accept its loss.

Last night I dreamt that a watch of mine had broken when I dropped it. In appearance, it was some weird composite of a smartphone, wristwatch and pocket watch and I remember trying to get it fixed. There was no resolution of the problem. However, I was quite soon after this splashing about in a pool and diving underwater.

Upon awakening, I associated this with the amniotic fluid of the womb and the broken chronometer, reminiscent of my grandfather's fob watch, was a sign that my time was up. Admittedly the night before, I had been contemplating my mortality as I lay in bed trying unsuccessfully to sleep.

With my birthday a little over two weeks away, I seem to be somewhat preoccupied with my mortality as if turning 75 is somehow more significant than other birthdays. Meher Baba died 25 days short of his 75th birthday and I'm now past that point with about 19 days remaining. 

Daniel Norgren's song "Everything You Know Melts Away Like Snow" playing on my phone as I write this. I play this song quite often on my guitar.

Everything you know

Everything you know

Melts away like snow

Melts away like snow (mm-hmm, mm-hmm)

Everyone you love

Everyone you love

Grass will grow above

Grass will grow above (mm-hmm, mm-hmm)

Cold black starry night

Cold black starry night

Makes my day look bright

Makes my day look bright (mm-hmm, mm-hmm)

Never comes the day

Never comes the day

That keeps the night away

Keeps the night away (mm-hmm, mm-hmm)

New green grass will grow

New green grass will grow

Folks will come and go

Folks will come and go (mm-hmm, mm-hmm)

Speaking of music, the title of this post is also that of a old song that goes like this:

So the old man lived ninety years in this song. Will I last that long?