Putting Everything Into Perspective

Bob and I sat at a picnic table at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday. It was hot and we were enjoying glasses of strawberry-lemonade. The tables were filling up and a bright-faced woman with gray hair asked if she could share our table. Perhaps it was the straw hat I wore. Perhaps people who become participating members of the cancer world just recognize each other. Whatever the reason, we soon learned that Martha was an ovarian cancer survivor of three years. I am too much of a loner to feel comfortable with support groups, but on a one to one basis such as this, it was encouraging to sit with someone who has “been there” and come out the other side. We laughed knowingly and agreed “Cancer certainly puts everything else into perspective.”

When she reached the age of seventy-seven, British mystery writer P. D. James took the advice of another British author, Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) - “At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.” James began writing her autobiography in the form of a diary. She writes in her prologue:

So tomorrow, on 3rd August, I shall write the first entry in a record which I propose to keep for one year, from my seventy-seventh to my seventy-eighth birthday. Will I persist with this effort? Only time will tell. And will I be here at the end of the year? At seventy-seven that is not an irrational question. But then is it irrational at any age? In youth we go forward caparisoned in immortality; it is only, I think, in age that we fully realize the transitoriness of life.

TIME TO BE IN EARNEST was published in 2000 for her 80th birthday. Fortunately for all of us P.D. James fans, writing her memoir hasn’t stopped her from continuing to write and publish Commander Adam Dalgliesh mysteries.

Melanie, a friend who shares my love for nature sent me a story (and photos) about one’s man amazing experience with black bears… He writes that Native Americans have a saying to describe this kind of experience between man and animal, "We have walked together in the shadow of a rainbow." Even though Melanie and I no longer live in wild places, we both feel blessed to have known that feeling. We too have walked in the rainbow’s shadow.

Past, present, and future. It is time to put my life into perspective.

… PLM