Althouse: "Back then, I wrote all day, getting up at five. By this time, I rise scratchy at six or twitch in bed until seven."

August 13, 2018

"Back then, I wrote all day, getting up at five. By this time, I rise scratchy at six or twitch in bed until seven."

"I drink coffee before I pick up a pen. I look through the newspaper. I try to write all morning, but exhaustion shuts me down by ten o’clock. I dictate a letter. I nap. I rise to a lunch of crackers and peanut butter, followed by further exhaustion. At night I watch baseball on television, and between innings run through the New York Times Book Review. I roll over all night. Breakfast. Coffee."

From "Notes Nearing Ninety: Learning to Write Less" by Donald Hall, who died at the age of 89 just before that essay was published in The Paris Review. The essay appears in his book, "A Carnival of Losses: Notes Nearing Ninety."

How do you see yourself spending at day when you are 90? Are you happy with that picture of yourself? I would be happy, at 90, to have what Hall describes — except "I roll over all night."

31 comments:

southcentralpa said...: Rocking The Villages. Hard. (The Villages, Florida)

Yeah, I agree about the rolling, at that age I'll definitely need to sleep on my back.; 8/13/18, 7:01 AM
Dave Begley said...: Did he shut down business down there?; 8/13/18, 7:03 AM
MadisonMan said...: One thing I like about my life right now: I can sleep easily and for a long time.

I would not like to roll around all night.; 8/13/18, 7:05 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: When I retired, I returned to playing classical piano. Six years later, I'm gigging as an accompanist for classical choral groups.

I'm even writing for classical piano.

This is something I can continue to do through age 90.

As I approach 70, most of my remaining time is taken up by trying to keep up my health and physical conditioning, and babysitting grandkids. If I make it to 90, I might see great grandkids.; 8/13/18, 7:08 AM
Oso Negro said...: Lack of sleep is a killer. Lack of engagement with the world is a killer. I think that for most of us, getting to 80 in relatively cheerful condition is quite a task. Getting to 90 that way is asking a lot.; 8/13/18, 7:10 AM
rhhardin said...: Sleeping with a dog on the bed keeps you from rolling over.; 8/13/18, 7:14 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: I was heavily indoctrinated in the anti-kid environmental hysteria in college in the 60s, and that influenced me deeply.

I bought the nonsense about not having kids. That went by the wayside and I later had my few. But, I wish I had more.

Grandkids are the greatest source of satisfaction and purpose for the elderly, and if you can be actively involved in caring for your grandkids, all the better.

The anti-kid philosophy is a killer. It leaves you alone and idle. It also leaves kids alone, as both parents head off to work.

So, I'd tell the young to chuck the "I'm going to have a career and maybe have kids when I'm 35 bullshit." Have kids. As many as you want.; 8/13/18, 7:21 AM
tim maguire said...: Very few men in my family see their 66th birthday, so I don't give a lot of thought to what life will look like at 90 (there is no pattern to their deaths other than age so there's no reason to think I can't live to 90, it's just hard to picture).

His life sounds pretty ideal. I'd hope to get out a little more and sleep a little better, but that's about it. I never had his discipline at writing.; 8/13/18, 7:28 AM
MadisonMan said...: Sleeping with a dog on the bed keeps you from rolling over.

Maybe, but our dog -- a bed hog -- is prone to waking up and shaking his head in the middle of the night. That does not promote rest.

For a long time he wasn''t allowed on the bed. Then we started to allow it. Mistake.; 8/13/18, 7:32 AM
Scott M said...: Probably wearing diapers and plugged into the latest VR suite.; 8/13/18, 7:35 AM
Ralph L said...: I've been rolling over all night since I got shingles 4 years ago, except for one month after I quit working, when I slept 10-12 hours.

It is a bitch.

My dad is 90 and he sleeps 10-12 hours most nights and naps during the day on the others.

The shingles made my spine hurt when lying on my side, which is the only way I can sleep.; 8/13/18, 7:38 AM
tim in vermont said...: If all you did was write from dawn to dusk, what could you possibly have to say that was of interest to anybody outside of, perhaps, and this is a stretch, your therapist?; 8/13/18, 7:48 AM
Sebastian said...: "If all you did was write from dawn to dusk, what could you possibly have to say that was of interest"

This is the problem with most "writers." They just write.; 8/13/18, 8:03 AM
Ralph L said...: Trollope claimed to sit down and write X thousand words every morning, but he also went fox hunting a lot a third of the year. He must have spent much of the afternoon thinking about the story, and the next one.

Readers of his serialized novels had a similar experience in reverse.; 8/13/18, 8:04 AM
Sebastian said...: "I would be happy, at 90, to have what Hall describes"

That's OK, as long as you remember to post something, or at least open up a cafe, first thing in the morning.; 8/13/18, 8:05 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "That's OK, as long as you remember to post something, or at least open up a cafe, first thing in the morning."

Will there be blogs in 2041? If yes, and if Althouse is still alive, will she be posting... and still every day, in an unbroken series of days since 2004?

(Will she still be referring to herself in the third person, as if Althouse is somebody else?); 8/13/18, 8:32 AM
Temujin said...: I find myself creepily moving toward what Hall is describing as his day at 92.; 8/13/18, 8:35 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Trollope claimed to sit down and write X thousand words every morning, but he also went fox hunting a lot a third of the year. He must have spent much of the afternoon thinking about the story, and the next one."

I remember reading that if he came to the end of a book and he had not written the set number of words that he would begin the next book, just to get to the right number. And he wasn't even using a word processor that counted the number of words. You'd think more of us would operate on a number-of-words basis. Especially since we have goals about the number of steps we need to take each day.

I don't count words or even posts, but when I look at the archive in the sidebar, I'm amazed to see the consistency in number of posts per week over the course of years. I write different length posts and go for different lengths of time and have different numbers of sessions per day and different proportions of time spent reading as opposed to writing, but year after year, it comes out as 60 to 80 posts a week.; 8/13/18, 8:36 AM
Danno said...: My dad will be 90 in November, God willing, and he still lives unassisted and plays in a golf league every Friday morning.; 8/13/18, 8:37 AM
Danno said...: Ann will be the Cal Ripken Jr. of bloggers. Or blogresses, if you prefer James Taranto's nomenclature.; 8/13/18, 8:40 AM
mezzrow said...: I want to be Charley. He's still playing sax in a big band every other Monday night. He'll be 91 soon.; 8/13/18, 10:11 AM
Yancey Ward said...: I watched my maternal grandfather make it to 89. His last 4 years alive were not the sort of life I would want to live, but up until that point he was the model I hope to have- he was active still, and growing a fairly large garden; but when he was 85, he started having serious problems with blood pressure variation and dizziness while standing and walking- after that point his health rapidly declined, and he spent the last 18 months of his life bed-ridden and ill. However, he didn't suffer from dementia at all. Neither of his children suffer from any dementia either, so I am hopeful in that regard. My fear is that my fate will be that of my father and his mother, both of whom have/had serious Alzheimer's, and my father (age 73) has both Parkinson's and debilitating back problems.

I am in in better physical health at age 52 than any of my my parents and grandparents were, so I keep my fingers crossed. I will be happy to make it to 75 and still able to go to the bathroom and wipe my own ass without help- doing so at 90 will just be icing on a great cake.; 8/13/18, 10:53 AM
Yancey Ward said...: If I had to pick model for elderly life that everyone knows of, it would be Willie Nelson.; 8/13/18, 10:56 AM
rhhardin said...: Will there be blogs in 2041?

Unix 32-bit time rolls over to zero in 2038, so blogs will probably end.; 8/13/18, 10:58 AM
m stone said...: " I will be happy to make it to 75 and still able to go to the bathroom and wipe my own ass without help- doing so at 90 will just be icing on a great cake." said Yancey Ward.

I suggest you rephrase that.

M; 8/13/18, 12:30 PM
William said...: I don't see what the problem is with sleeping a lot. There are pros and cons to socializing, but there's no downside to sleeping late and taking an afternoon nap to top it off.; 8/13/18, 12:56 PM
mccullough said...: I’d take Hall’s routine now at age 46. I watch baseball most nights (I read mostly at night in the late fall and winter). I’d love to nap more.; 8/13/18, 1:07 PM
Oso Negro said...: @ Temujin - So you are 92 now?; 8/13/18, 1:09 PM
William said...: To maintain peak inertia it's necessary to go to the gymn with fair regularity. Lack of exercise interferes with the ability to reach R.E.M. optimum. It takes character and self discipline to stay in shape for competitive napping.; 8/13/18, 2:25 PM
Rabel said...: "How do you see yourself spending at day when you are 90?"

Hopefully, in 23 years, I'll still be spry enough to attend Barron's coronation.; 8/13/18, 2:31 PM
Bilwick said...: I've always found Hemingway's routine, from when he was at his peak, appealing. Get up, a little exercise, and write for about four hours, or until the well ran dry so to speak. (He tried to end his writing sessions while it was going well, so he could pick up the next day where he left off and resume on a high note.) Then, writing done for the day, do the active stuff we associate with him: boxing, fishing, etc. My enthusiasms are different from "Papa's" but I like the balance of the cerebral with the physical. Then of course the drinking and the shtupping.; 8/13/18, 3:09 PM