While I can't recommend this character's method of fabricating a whole past life, he demonstrates how the power of a vision can captivate and enliven both the present and the future. When looking at your own lifeline, imagining a different existence than the one you've lived so far can move you to a whole new place. Rather than impose self-limiting beliefs on yourself, why not learn to recognize and live more comfortably with your choices and desires?
William Gold did just that, even though it meant going against the grain of what others thought he should do with his later years.
Gold owned a heating and plumbing installations business in Quincy, Illinois, for 40 years. A master craftsman, he always enjoyed hands-on work more than business management. In the early 1980s, changes in the economic climate made it difficult for a meticulous craftsman to do work in the way he so enjoyed. So, at age 65, he elected to close his business down altogether. But he couldn't afford to retire and, in truth, he didn't want to. His work was one of the great passions of his life.
Searching for new options, he considered the obvious choice: consulting. Certainly, he knew enough about government rules and regulations to consult to others. But the field didn't really appeal to him. He was more of a hands-on type.
To everyone's amazement (and amid a hail of protests from well-meaning friends and family), he went to work with the crew of men he'd once hired. And to everyone else's surprise, he loved every minute of his new job. Being the oldest member of the crew didn't exempt him from having to do physical labor (although the younger men did help him with some of the lifting and carrying). But on the road, he was "one of the boys" again and as involved and productive as he'd ever been. More than anything else, he loved feeling useful. That, for him, was the true bottom line.
His work was so important to him that he would have done it whether he got paid or not. He could never walk into a room without remodeling it in his mind's eye. At his synagogue, he took the single-handed initiative to remodel the rabbi's study, even though he didn't get paid for the work. And when he visited a cemetery and saw that the cast iron gates were broken, he rented a welding torch and used his own money to fix them. When asked why, he responded simply: "It needed to be done."
Gold died last year at age 75. He worked up until three weeks before his death. On his last official day on the job, he was part of a crew that was remodeling the hospital emergency room. When he was done, he turned in his tools, walked around the corner and checked himself into the hospital, where he was operated on for cancer. His working days may have been over, but in his mind, he was still on the job. Even on his deathbed, he and his brother Ben were joyously scribbling and planning installations.
Gerontologists Paul Costa and Robert McCrae of the National Institute of Aging in Washington, DC, pinpoint "openness to experience" as the single most important lifelong trait for successful aging. So don't buy into the idea that everything goes downhill once you reach a certain age. Instead, why not try to recapture some of the spirit of adventure you had before all those financial responsibilities started weighing down your choices?
