Open Writing

Having your time over again? Let's hope not. You would just repeat all the mistakes you made last time.

But you can take up again some of the activities you left unfinished and add to or repair what you have already done.

You may not be able to thank your parents, teachers and others who did so much for you, or to do now the kindnesses you failed in the past to show them in return.

But you can be kind to others, with no thought of reward, and restore your credit balance in your account in the Bank of Human Kindness.

In review, I am surprised to see how often I was able to return to activities which had been abruptly ended with no foreseeable prospect of returning to them. Here are some of them.

Writing for publication began with the school magazine up to 1928, started again in 1934 in a local paper, ceased in 1938 with a move to a new job. The next resumption was in the 1950s with frequent contributions to Department of Agriculture publications up to 1975 and in 1972 a history of dairying in Victoria. In the three decades since my 'retirement', writing, editing and desktop publishing have brought many demands on those skills.

Science for me seemed to end in 1930, two years into a 4-year degree course, when the Great Financial Depression intervened. Suddenly my elementary training in entomology was put to use in 1940 when the AIF sent me to a school on Malaria Control conducted in the Jordan Valley, where the disease was endemic and control work was in place. We applied our new skill in Lebanon and, later, in Sri Lanka. That ceased, for me, with our return to Australia, but in 1943 my previous studies of Physics and Mathematics were most helpful when I transferred to the RAAF and studied Radio Theory as a major subject in the Wireless Operator course. Science became a dominant interest again when, in 1945, I had the opportunity to complete my degree course, and in my subsequent career.

Through life, skills which seem unrelated can combine to change one's destiny. For me, this happened in Music. Until the end of 1924 my mother taught me to play the piano tolerably well. Ten years later I joined the local brass band as a learner and bought a cornet, just as a hobby, until I joined the AIF in 1940 as a bandsman/stretcher bearer. This, together with my background in science, led to me being chosen for anti-malaria training.

These are just examples of many skills and interests which have come and gone from time to time in a lifetime of unexpected changes. Even if you have had only one dominant career path, there have probably been some lesser interests or activities you could take up again, or some new interest you could develop which is within your present abilities.

Advancing age is no barrier. On the contrary, those older people who remain active and interested in their community tend, as a group, to remain more healthy than those who think they are 'too old', 'over the hill', or 'finished'.

© Ken Sillcock