What Winston Churchill Knew

Hello friends, and welcome to Notes from the Road! This is the place for news, advice, tools, and inspiration to thrive in your 50s and beyond. In this issue:

• What Churchill knew about getting older.

• Edinburgh trip, week 3.

• 5 ways walking makes retirement better.

• Older Americans are working longer.

• The year we ran away from home.

Let’s get started!

What Winston Churchill Knew About Getting Older

I confess right here that I’m a Winston Churchill fangirl. That might be the strangest sentence I’ve ever written but it’s true. For my 53rd birthday, my family ordered a custom ice cream cake that incorporated a Winston Churchill quote (my first obsession) and birdwatching (my second obsession). There’s probably no truer and weirder testament to their love for me, but that’s how we roll.

There’s so much to love about Winston Churchill: complexity, paradox, eccentricity, brilliance, courage, and more than a few fatal flaws. And I’ve just scratched the surface.

Although he was born into the British aristocracy at Blenheim Palace, Churchill wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His parents could be neglectful and cruel, even for that period in history. They were spendthrifts, leaving him with virtually no inheritance. He had to earn a living from his writing, and managed his money poorly.

In fact, Churchill’s adult life was pockmarked with failure and struggle from beginning to end. It was especially challenging from ages 40 to 90. And yet, he kept going. And as I look at it from the vantage point of midlife, I’ve wondered, how?

When he was 40, Churchill’s enthusiastic support of the Dardanelles campaign in WWI resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties and his removal as First Lord of the Admiralty. His wife Clementine said of that time I thought he would never get over the Dardanelles. I thought he would die of grief. He was effectively cast out of productive public life for many years, grief-stricken, humiliated, and with his career in tatters.

To keep going—to climb out of the abyss—he threw himself into two oddly paired projects.

He wrote The World Crisis, a six-volume comprehensive account of the First World War, including his role in it and the lessons he learned.

And he started painting.

Casting about for a new purpose at midlife, he trained a critical eye on both the dark and the light. On the ugliest and the most beautiful. On the gritty and the glorious. He set out to dissect both sides, unsparingly. And in doing so, he found a way through, in the fourth and fifth decades of his life.

Winston Churchill knew this about getting older: we’re more capable of reconciling shadow and sunshine. We can learn—and heal—by embracing both, and there’s nothing to fear. By hurtling headlong into both darkness and light, and dissecting every part, he emerged anew. And so can we, if we’re courageous enough to do the same.

In April, I realized a lifelong dream to visit Winston Churchill’s country house, Chartwell, in Kent, England. I saw where it all happened, where the books were written, where the paintings were painted. I saw the great sweep of Churchill’s life, the bitter and the sweet. And I understood, for the first time, how he kept going.

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Edinburgh Trip Blog, Week 3

So we’re at the end of week 3 in Edinburgh. About 4 weeks remaining on this trip. Some quick impressions and observations.

We were lucky with our apartment selection. It’s spacious and very comfortable. The kitchen is decently equipped. Very quiet, especially at night in the bedroom which is in the rear away from the street. Watching TV the other night, relaxing on the couch, we realized it’s remarkably like home. It didn’t feel at all like we were halfway across the world. Very nice and stress-free. Read more. 

The Weekly Roundup

Worth your time to watch, read, and listen.

📰 Perception of When Old Age Starts Has Increased Over Time, Shows Study. I don’t know about you, but these days, 60 seems pretty young to me. As people get older, they revise the age they consider to be old upwards. Go figure. (3.5 min read)

🎧 5 Ways Walking Makes Retirement Better. Our friend Dave, host of the Walking is Fitness podcast, is back with this 10 minute talk about just a few of the ways retirement is better with walking. Lots of health benefits, of course, but also money, time, purpose, and more.

📰 Older Americans Are Working Longer. Some Want To; Others Have To. “This whole notion of an independent, work-free retirement is truly a modern one.” We’re all still sorting that out, especially since pensions disappeared. (11 min. read)

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