by Jack
As we age, no matter who we are, eventually we will all share similar situations and thoughts. The great writers in history have much to say about every year of life. Joshua Prager consolidates timeless quotes for each year of our life into book form that offers us great insight into who we were, who are and where we’re going. His new book, “100 Years” explores the stages of a complete life through quotes from great writers.
“On our 21st birthday, we don’t care what the world thinks of us; only later we discover that it wasn’t thinking of us at all.” ~ Unknown
“Life really does begin at forty. Up until then, you are just doing research.” – Carl G. Jung
“I have achieved my seventy years in the usual way, by sticking strictly to a scheme of life which would kill anybody else….I will offer here, as a sound maxim, this: That we can’t reach old age by another man’s road.” Mark Twain
From the New York Times book review, “…his literary tapestry of the human experience will delight readers of all backgrounds. Moving year by year through the words of our most beloved authors, the great sequence of life reveals itself—the wonders and confinements of childhood, the emancipations and frustrations of adolescence, the empowerments and millstones of adulthood, the recognitions and resignations of old age.
This trove of wisdom—featuring immortal passages from Arthur Rimbaud, Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, David Foster Wallace, William Shakespeare, Herman Melville, Jane Austen, and Maya Angelou, among many others—reminds us that the patterns of life transcend continents, cultures, and generations. As Thomas Mann wrote of our most shared human experience: “It will happen to me as to them.” Designed by the legendary Milton Glaser, who created the I ♥ NY logo, 100 Years brings together color, type, and text to illuminate the ebb and flow of an entire life.
I won’t say how old I am, but I do vividly recall sitting in front of a radio the size of my ATV and listening to FDR’s “Day of Infamy” speech. Most of my peers are dead, and most of the survivors are physically and/or mentally disabled.
I’ve survived a parachute accident, an abalone diving accident, and a motorcycle accident, each of which were supposed to kill me. I’ve been shot at, assaulted by a gang of hoods, and surrounded by wildfire.
I’ve been breaking every rule of healthy living for as long as I can remember.
I still get out to clear brush, cut firewood, and generally maintain my Cherokee acreage. So this is where I should tell the world the secret to living a long and healthy life.
Damned if I know.
Statistically speaking C. J. you shouldn’t be alive, but glad you are! You have a PHD in REAL LIFE and when you speak others should listen, they could learn a lot.