I took 1000-mile walk along the Camino de Santiago from the South of France to the coast of Spain. A midlife journey of love and loss. Here's the story.
Adam - I read this whole thing from start to finish over the course of a couple days. Really powerful and moving writing. I appreciate the depth of introspection that this camino provided for you and thank you for sharing it with us. All the best.
Matthew, it is the deepest satisfaction to be read through at that speed, to know that your words (life) held someone's attention that closely. You obviously know from reading it how important it is to me. Thank you for acknowledging the work.
“I’m totally listening,” I tell them, running off…. Omg yes!
I’m loving this so much I’m inhaling it. Thank you 🙏 from the other side of the world.
I’m in the middle of a sabbatical year and suddenly discovered that I have 18 projects mid-flow and mastery is being chased in all of them without achievement of course! 🤣 Your beautiful writing is so what I needed today though I had a big list of projects for the morning. I’m sitting still and reading instead.
Hah! You have this, too! It's the story of my life, and, as disciplined as I happen to be, no amount of discipline (and sometimes, ugh, talent) will ever bring me to mastery in everything I'm interested in. There's a great story by Tolstoy called How Much Land Does a Man Need and it is about greed, but it applies here, too.
Thanks for the supportive words on my writing. That particular set of ideas hasn't really resonated with anyone yet. Maybe we are a smaller set of relentless pursuers than we think.
I don’t feel quite the same way about this as perhaps my context is a little different. For the first 50 years of my life I was supremely miserable. So much so that I was also sick a lot. I missed out on a lot. For some good reasons but more interestingly over the last 10 years I’ve transformed my life completely into predominantly an experience of possibility and joy. I’m now eating up so many new things, ravenous to experience as much as I can before it’s too late.
So what about mastery?
Yes I want mastery too to make more meaning of my life, for longings of the transcendent feelings when lost in creative work and egoic reasons but honestly it’s not the main game I’m playing this year.
It’s supposed to take 10,800 hrs to attain mastery in something. But there’s some leeway in this game because you can count hours spent in complementary pursuits to build up your hours.
My original profession was as a Producer/Director. I’m sure everything I’m doing now expands my mastery in those fields still. Maybe not learning to drive a tractor 🤣, but..
Let’s have this discussion next year and see how we both feel?
What a gratifying pivot in your life. I often think about what life would be like if the best years were early and the most challenging years were late. You've scheduled this perfectly. 😀
We are roughly the same age (I'm 59 this year), and there are some interesting transitions going on right now. Some of this may be a general softening of expectation around Becoming for me. Some of this may be the children grown and thriving, the marriage still thriving after that. Writing, in its way, thriving -- or at least transcendent from time to time which is enough to ask.
We shall talk in a year if not much earlier. Thanks for your comments here -- and a hat tip for the transition you've made in your life.
Gosh I could yarn with you in this thread all day about these transitions in this time of our third act. I find them so fascinating too. I reckon it would make a fabulous Substack. Oops there I go creating another project! Haha.
In the meantime I have bookmarked your whole story to complete on my flight from Australia to Paris in a couple of days. An adventure that has me full to the brim with anticipation. It is just exponentially better to be 60 than 20.
Adam - I read this whole thing from start to finish over the course of a couple days. Really powerful and moving writing. I appreciate the depth of introspection that this camino provided for you and thank you for sharing it with us. All the best.
Matthew, it is the deepest satisfaction to be read through at that speed, to know that your words (life) held someone's attention that closely. You obviously know from reading it how important it is to me. Thank you for acknowledging the work.
“I’m totally listening,” I tell them, running off…. Omg yes!
I’m loving this so much I’m inhaling it. Thank you 🙏 from the other side of the world.
I’m in the middle of a sabbatical year and suddenly discovered that I have 18 projects mid-flow and mastery is being chased in all of them without achievement of course! 🤣 Your beautiful writing is so what I needed today though I had a big list of projects for the morning. I’m sitting still and reading instead.
Hah! You have this, too! It's the story of my life, and, as disciplined as I happen to be, no amount of discipline (and sometimes, ugh, talent) will ever bring me to mastery in everything I'm interested in. There's a great story by Tolstoy called How Much Land Does a Man Need and it is about greed, but it applies here, too.
https://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/2738/
Thanks for the supportive words on my writing. That particular set of ideas hasn't really resonated with anyone yet. Maybe we are a smaller set of relentless pursuers than we think.
The first five paragraphs of this are very much about our situation:: https://www.adamnathan.com/p/finisterre-chapter-1
Go be great at one thing this morning. 😀
I don’t feel quite the same way about this as perhaps my context is a little different. For the first 50 years of my life I was supremely miserable. So much so that I was also sick a lot. I missed out on a lot. For some good reasons but more interestingly over the last 10 years I’ve transformed my life completely into predominantly an experience of possibility and joy. I’m now eating up so many new things, ravenous to experience as much as I can before it’s too late.
So what about mastery?
Yes I want mastery too to make more meaning of my life, for longings of the transcendent feelings when lost in creative work and egoic reasons but honestly it’s not the main game I’m playing this year.
It’s supposed to take 10,800 hrs to attain mastery in something. But there’s some leeway in this game because you can count hours spent in complementary pursuits to build up your hours.
My original profession was as a Producer/Director. I’m sure everything I’m doing now expands my mastery in those fields still. Maybe not learning to drive a tractor 🤣, but..
Let’s have this discussion next year and see how we both feel?
We can check in.
What a gratifying pivot in your life. I often think about what life would be like if the best years were early and the most challenging years were late. You've scheduled this perfectly. 😀
We are roughly the same age (I'm 59 this year), and there are some interesting transitions going on right now. Some of this may be a general softening of expectation around Becoming for me. Some of this may be the children grown and thriving, the marriage still thriving after that. Writing, in its way, thriving -- or at least transcendent from time to time which is enough to ask.
We shall talk in a year if not much earlier. Thanks for your comments here -- and a hat tip for the transition you've made in your life.
Gosh I could yarn with you in this thread all day about these transitions in this time of our third act. I find them so fascinating too. I reckon it would make a fabulous Substack. Oops there I go creating another project! Haha.
In the meantime I have bookmarked your whole story to complete on my flight from Australia to Paris in a couple of days. An adventure that has me full to the brim with anticipation. It is just exponentially better to be 60 than 20.