Some Reflections

I have just finished reading Larry McMurtry's Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen (part of which I read at the Burger King, ironic?). The subtitle is Reflections at Sixty and Beyond. This book really got me thinking of a lot of things, but first I want to state that McMurtry is fast becoming my favorite non-political, non-theological essayist. I have read four collections of his essays in the last three weeks and have enjoyed them all. In some aspects I feel as if I am reading about myself, especially when he discusses books. More about that at some other time. What really struck me were his reflections on life at age sixty and beyond. I am fast approaching a milestone "0" birthday and have been in a reflective mood of late, especially concerned with my legacy and haunted by the fact that with no children there is so much family lore and legend that will die with me. With McMurtry it was the realization that his father was part of a culture, the cowboy, that has now all but disappeared, and that his own culture, the book scout and collector is now a vanishing breed. I have decided to use this forum occasionally in the future to attempt to put some of my story down in a medium that may last longer than I do.