{"id":1461,"date":"2008-07-17T14:13:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-17T14:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/07\/briefest-on-turning-sixty\/"},"modified":"2011-11-01T15:13:00","modified_gmt":"2011-11-01T19:13:00","slug":"briefest-on-turning-sixty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/07\/briefest-on-turning-sixty.html","title":{"rendered":"Briefest On Turning Sixty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Too soon old, too late, smart.<\/span>\n
<\/div>\n
I first saw that little bit of folk wisdom calligraphed on a bread board with a cutesy Germanesque spelling. As I\u2019ve rooted around looking for a possible source I\u2019ve found it attributed as coming from the Jewish tradition, the Dutch tradition and, yes, the German. Today, my sixtieth birthday, it just feels like regular old human wisdom.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
If only I knew then\u2026<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Ain\u2019t it the truth?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In East Asian cultures at sixty one becomes officially wise. I\u2019ve tried to tell my friends this and they seem to think its supposed to be ironic or something. At least so far as it has to do with me\u2026<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I have to admit I don\u2019t feel particularly smarter, not particularly wiser.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I do feel older. That, all I have to do is look in a mirror, to confirm.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Lots of gray. On the tubby side. Young women are polite to me and I fear increasingly find me cute. And not in the good way\u2026<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
On the other hand I\u2019ve always felt I was born middle-aged (James, sixty isn\u2019t middle aged, I hear some whipper snappers exclaim. Sixty is old\u2026). And these days I often feel I\u2019m growing into my true Jamesness.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And, on balance, not a bad thing\u2026<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
As our teacher Rumi sang\u2026<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I used to be shy.<\/span><\/div>\n
You made me sing.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
I used to refuse things at table.<\/span><\/div>\n
Now I shout for more wine.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
In somber dignity, I used to sit<\/span><\/div>\n
on my mat and pray.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Now children run through<\/span><\/div>\n
and make faces at me.<\/span><\/div>\n
Not a bad thing, at all\u2026\n

<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Too soon old, too late, smart. I first saw that little bit of folk wisdom calligraphed on a bread board with a cutesy Germanesque spelling. As I\u2019ve rooted around looking for a possible source I\u2019ve found it attributed as coming from the Jewish tradition, the Dutch tradition and, yes, the German. Today, my sixtieth birthday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBriefest On Turning Sixty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Too soon old, too late, smart.I first saw that little bit of folk wisdom calligraphed on a bread board with a cutesy Germanesque spelling. As I've rooted\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/07\/briefest-on-turning-sixty.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Briefest On Turning Sixty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Too soon old, too late, smart.I first saw that little bit of folk wisdom calligraphed on a bread board with a cutesy Germanesque spelling. As I've rooted\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/07\/briefest-on-turning-sixty.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Monkey Mind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/james.ford.1029\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-07-17T14:13:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-11-01T19:13:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/bp3.blogger.com\/_niPwTW3rBbU\/SH-R3jmg9UI\/AAAAAAAABG4\/Sp5S3jRDU2A\/s320\/oldmonkey.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Ford\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Ford\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/07\/briefest-on-turning-sixty.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/07\/briefest-on-turning-sixty.html\",\"name\":\"Briefest On Turning Sixty\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-07-17T14:13:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-11-01T19:13:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/3f37f475fb5078d1e7faa93a63a0fddb\"},\"description\":\"Too soon old, too late, smart.I first saw that little bit of folk wisdom calligraphed on a bread board with a cutesy Germanesque spelling. As I've rooted\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/07\/briefest-on-turning-sixty.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/07\/briefest-on-turning-sixty.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/07\/briefest-on-turning-sixty.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Briefest On Turning Sixty\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/\",\"name\":\"Monkey Mind\",\"description\":\"Easily distracted...\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/3f37f475fb5078d1e7faa93a63a0fddb\",\"name\":\"James Ford\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa18971b225a3bb79f0c4c381a5fae20?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa18971b225a3bb79f0c4c381a5fae20?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James Ford\"},\"description\":\"James Ishmael Ford is a writer and spiritual director. He has been authorized as a teacher within two traditional Zen lineages. James has washed dishes, assisted a crab fisherman on the Florida keys, worked in bookstores up and down the California coast, and served as a Unitarian Universalist parish minister. He currently lives with his spouse Jan and her mother in Los Angeles. His next book the Intimate Way of Zen is due from Shambhala Publications in July, 2024.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.emptymoonzen.org\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/james.ford.1029\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_Ishmael_Ford\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/author\/jamesford\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Briefest On Turning Sixty","description":"Too soon old, too late, smart.I first saw that little bit of folk wisdom calligraphed on a bread board with a cutesy Germanesque spelling. As I've rooted","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/07\/briefest-on-turning-sixty.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Briefest On Turning Sixty","og_description":"Too soon old, too late, smart.I first saw that little bit of folk wisdom calligraphed on a bread board with a cutesy Germanesque spelling. As I've rooted","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/07\/briefest-on-turning-sixty.html","og_site_name":"Monkey Mind","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/james.ford.1029","article_published_time":"2008-07-17T14:13:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-11-01T19:13:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/bp3.blogger.com\/_niPwTW3rBbU\/SH-R3jmg9UI\/AAAAAAAABG4\/Sp5S3jRDU2A\/s320\/oldmonkey.jpg"}],"author":"James Ford","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James Ford","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/07\/briefest-on-turning-sixty.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/07\/briefest-on-turning-sixty.html","name":"Briefest On Turning Sixty","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-07-17T14:13:00+00:00","dateModified":"2011-11-01T19:13:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/3f37f475fb5078d1e7faa93a63a0fddb"},"description":"Too soon old, too late, smart.I first saw that little bit of folk wisdom calligraphed on a bread board with a cutesy Germanesque spelling. As I've rooted","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/07\/briefest-on-turning-sixty.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/07\/briefest-on-turning-sixty.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/07\/briefest-on-turning-sixty.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Briefest On Turning Sixty"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/","name":"Monkey Mind","description":"Easily distracted...","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/3f37f475fb5078d1e7faa93a63a0fddb","name":"James Ford","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa18971b225a3bb79f0c4c381a5fae20?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa18971b225a3bb79f0c4c381a5fae20?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"James Ford"},"description":"James Ishmael Ford is a writer and spiritual director. He has been authorized as a teacher within two traditional Zen lineages. James has washed dishes, assisted a crab fisherman on the Florida keys, worked in bookstores up and down the California coast, and served as a Unitarian Universalist parish minister. He currently lives with his spouse Jan and her mother in Los Angeles. His next book the Intimate Way of Zen is due from Shambhala Publications in July, 2024.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.emptymoonzen.org","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/james.ford.1029","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_Ishmael_Ford"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/author\/jamesford"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}