I. Teaching

At 49½  I substitute taught until I was given a teaching position. Over next 10 years I taught US History, Econ, geography, US government & law at Jackson Hole High School. 

My lofty teacher goals had always been to:
   1) find a way for students to actually learn,
   2) enrich student’s life potential after me.
   3) perhaps change education at large. lol

A. Traditional ‘bad’ teaching:

My 1st 2 years I taught as … I had been taught, as U of WY College of Education taught me AND and as my fellow teachers taught — I lectured the textbook curriculum & gave tests.            Unchallenged production line!

    1. Lecturing:    

I had read & re-read popular lay-education books: Summerhill’, & “Education & Ecstasy.” I constantly read current professional educational pedagogy literature our school librarian had assembled in the teacher’s section; searching & always experimenting for better teaching methods & classroom management strategies. Apparently, I was alone. Our Librarian remarked, “Few teachers ever read these books." No surprise.

"Public education: "150 years of tradition unhampered by progress." Anonymous
"Most advanced technology productively used in schools is the lead pencil." Unrecalled older teacher. NOTE: We may use computers, but often merely to perpetuate the same underlying system.

My early experiments were foolish, hamstrung by a blind faith in traditional teaching.

Anecdote: foolish note-taking: I created elaborate notes to lecture from until I realized that students were busy writing as I lectured; totally ignoring me.   I didn’t really need to be there.

.  My Solution: So, I condensed my notes & installed short blank lined spaces (___) for key info (names, dates, etc) so students could fill in those blanks quickly without being distracted from my ‘riveting’ lectures. I often joked later that I ‘traditionally taught’ better (worse.) than my fellow teachers.

The absurdity is that such lecturing/note-taking is widespread, taken for granted as ideal pedagogy that presumptively leads to actual learning even tho students before them contradicted it.  It is NOT actual learning.

    2. Testing:  My anal tests were predictably detailed, content-driven monuments to ‘traditional testing.’  The ultimate teacher and industry's weaponized whip.

    3. Classroom management:  Classroom management is teaching’s euphemism for controlling bored youth who acted out the system's inflicted oppressive, brain-numbing boredom with sleep, surreptitious whispering and other distracting behaviors. 

Classroom management is an administration's hardball draconian foolishness. Unfortunately, I initially bought into my administration & my research's duplicity for controlling 20 to 30 very bored, vibrant, intelligent kittens. Easier to think in terms of an unruly prison population reflected in the justified anger of my students.

 Unfortunately, I was a new teacher drinking the Cool Aid. Oh, that I had the means to apologize to each student.

Anecdote: My 1^st year teaching mentor:  When not lecturing, my “1st year teacher mentor’s classes were unconstrained pandemonium's loud shouting & fooling around. When my mentor sought to speak, he would yell until his Football Coach’s voice quelled the riot. Ludicrous.   Note: the next year my mentor moved on to a small school as principal and football coach. Education's Peter Principle in action. 

B. My Teaching’s 180° U-turn:

At 52, having taught high school for two years, I was frustrated, ashamed & unable to ignore any longer my ongoing hypocrisy of equating forced memorization and destructive testing with "actual learning".

During each class lecture my students and I struggled to stay awake knowing that they would be tested at week’s end on the drivel I had spewed. Worse, I was replicating all the classroom dynamics that had bored me to failure during the 1st 20 years of my life. 

Unprofessionally worse, I, & my fellow teachers, knew we were frauds because we saw its useless effects each day in student boredom & bad testing performance.            Shame on me for violating my teacher's inherent moral duty. 

Anecdote:: After my 2nd year of teaching, .....I advised my School Principal that I ‘literally cried’ at home because my kids were so bored by my lectures, angered by my classroom management techniques & intimidated by test anxiety. I told him, "I felt useless & a hypocritical fraud, because I knew my classic ‘teaching’ was destructive & counterproductive. I was everything BUT a professional teacher."

My Principal calmly looked directly at me, “If you don’t like it, change it.”   I responded, “Really?  He confirmed          & …. I did.
My Principal had character & courage.

1. My New Goals:

My new goal (think obsession) was to find a teaching method that would genuinely inspire/motivate kids to actually learn & perhaps enjoy learning,  rather than merely short-term memorization to pass tests. 

I needed to 1) replace the fraudulent forced memorization-based regimen posing as ‘learning’, 2) eliminate specious destructive testing and do so 3) in an atmosphere conducive to learning. Only the arrogant foolishness of public education would pretend to presume that humans do everything correctly the 1st time.

I needed a strategy that minimized each student’s systemic academic fear and capitalized on their inherent curiosity, imagination, initiative, and creativity. IMO, all humans are innately driven by fear & the curiosity arising after fear is controlled or understood. Fear & curiosity spawns all.

Anecdote: colorful venomous snake: Hiking my AZ mountains, ...  a tiny gorgeous color-banded snake crossed my path.  My 1st reaction was a mild fear: “Snake! Beware”. My 2nd thought, “What a gorgeous vibrant color, My 3rd impulse, “What is it? My 4th thought, “Be careful, its color could be its ‘severe venom’ warning.”  Fear & curiosity mix. PIK:

I walked respectfully on ... to Google & found the Arizona Mountain Kingsnake, often mistaken for the venomous Arizona Coral Snake. PIK K9

2. My Solutions: 

I eliminated lectures & tests replacing them with hands-on, critical thinking, creative projects & mini projects in a respectful classroom paradigm.                       
    a. PROJECTS: that hopefully drive & elevate the quality of their life experience.

That summer, I began creation of a project-based curriculum for all my courses that continued, unabated, for every summer, Christmas, & spring break for the next 5-6 years; creating & continually refining an entire project-based curriculum for 5 disciplines (US History, government, economics, geography and law). I was obsessed. 

This was a monumental effort to condense an exhaustive textbook’s extensive detailed Table of Contents & index down to the truly useful topics that exposed the true essence —the rationale - for a student to learn what was considered important.

         Example: US Civil War 
              1. Traditional focus: battle dates, key generals/people, etc, list of reasons for, etc.
              2. Useful life takeaways: 1) evil of slavery & prejudice, 2) sanctity of an undivided USA, 3) justification for loss of life, 4) hero definition, 5) long term effects.
           Note: My goal was to ‘learn’ from Civil War study  important concepts that help a citizen negotiate & understand their future US citizen decisions. 

The projects had to be doable by all yet, unconstrained for those who jumped at the challenge. The projects were divided into 3 realms: 
    1) documentation of basic facts, concepts etc, 
    2) student demonstration of simple use/organization, of that basic info, and finally & most important, 
    3) student's creative expression of the basic info & concepts thru any medium: writing, acting, & drawing.

My hope was that my student's would unleash their creativity & imagination evidencing a passion for their own effort; that they develop the courage to 'stand on the edge of the cliff, spread theerir wings & leap forward into the abyss." 

Anecdote 1: student's complaint: a junior at the very top of her class commented in front of her mother and our parent teacher meeting, and she did not like my method of teaching. Excepted her comment respectfully, but after this semester and all grades and exams were turned in, she wrote me a personal note saying 'Thank you for teaching me a new way to think."   

Anecdote 2: student's mom’s concern/request: At the parent-teacher conference a mom said her son worked late at night on my projects. She asked me to advise him not to. I responded respectfully, of course, that, "I cannot do that because it is exactly what I am trying to promote -- for the rest of their life, an unquenchable passion."

Eventually, I replaced the standard, dry, boring, often wrong or biased textbooks my own trusted quality resources, an college text book (georgraphy), & interetsting National Geographic-type book sets. 

             Chilkoot Trail lesson plan: [pplk: ….] also some PIKs at ‘Chilkoot Trail PIKs’ fld. AK video (???) 

 engage gauge student minds & energies in & outside of class.

Creating interesting & challenging 2 week timed projects & min-projects was an all consuming time & energy commitment; 1½ weekend days & ¾ of all Xmas, Spring & summer breaks. No la la beach life here. 😀 based on and classroom management of rooted mutual student-teacher respect.

    b. Tests: I eliminated all tests except 1) the administration's demanded final exam that I made very easy-to-pass (I did not respect the concept) & 2) an occasional homework quiz if class seemed to be shirking homework preparation.

Anecdote: Professor Gary Render: In UW's College of Education class I asked Professor, Gary Render,  what I might do about my disdain for anxiety-generating ‘testing’. He looked at me seriously & said, “Stop testing.” At the time I chuckled at his heresy, but his retort came back later as I prepared my 3rd year’s curriculum. I developed a new system

My students were graded on their workman-like completion of all 3 project tasks, sincerity of reasoning (even if incorrect), authentic effort, imagination and creativity. Only B & A grades were acceptable; all else were 'incomplete" which must be upgraded before semeter's end or you fail class.  I don’t want C student dentists or plumbers working for me.  

Content was ONLY the medium; secondary in importance to my criteria. Michelangelo's 'medium' was a block of poor quality, discarded marble. His 'vision' was our culture's precious "David." Today's internet access renders most content instantly voluminously available than when I taught. The application of 'critical thinking' & its related brethren (curiosity, creativity, etc), not taught in public schools, trumps all else.  

 

Satisfactory completion of my projects was my assessment or test device. Example: to have a person ‘learn’ how to repair a carburetor, provide the otherwise operable vehicle with a ‘bad’ carburetor, necessary tools & repair instructions (on Google Search now).                   To assess or test: ...  turn the key.  

    c. Classroom management:   My classroom management philosophy abruptly changed to one of mutual respect between teacher and students rendering classroom management, per se, unnecessary. e.g. if I, or any student, is talking, you are not, and vice versa.

Anecdote: When I needed the 'floor':  Projects & mini-projects often involved students engaging with each other. My control mechanisms were simple: 
     1) noise level too high? I stood in front of class with a smile & motioned downward with my hand like asking a service dog to lie down. Someone would notice & the noise level would drop.

     2) If I needed to interrupt their discussions, I simply stood quietly in front of the class with a smile on my face, waiting for someone to notice. They then advised everybody else that I had something to say, and the room became quiet. (often I would do this, and my eyes would water as I reflected on the mutual respect that their 'quiet' reflected compared to the nasty 'classroom management' of my first 2 years.)

    3) If I overheard too much non-project conversation (weekend’s football game) I would casually ask the distracting student some totally innocuous question unrelated to the project. The student got my ‘hidden’ clue and went back to work without teacher’s humiliating reprimand.

Irony, that my earlier school failures now drove my passionate curiosity to learn in order to teach better.

3. Next 8 years:  

Thereafter, for 8 more years until I retired, my classes were project-based without tests in a respectful classroom environment.  

During that 10 years 2 experiences influenced my future & its travel. 

   Note: 
        1st, my father died at 85 forcing me to realize I was next in line into the abyss — no time to waste.    
        2^nd My revered friend, Mary Mead, died in a horse accident. 

 

II. Solo Adventures:

A. Prelude:

At 55, my Dad died; a ‘blow’, anticipated or not. The only connection to my youth & my family. The only human I have ever loved, in any true sense. More such wake up call were yet to come. 

THEREAFTER, I realized that I was more than half way thru my life. I had to max it out. Make it count in my terms. I began to seriously test myself self worth, FOMO and fear of lying on my death bed lamenting what I had not done

 My father’s death forced me to my ‘see’ my own path to the abyss — no time to waste. This awakened mindset drove a series of large & small challenging outdoor solo adventurers.

B. Synopsis:

    1. 1996 1^st AK road trip (Mary Mead’s Death)
    2.1997 2^nd AK trip: A 60mi backpack trek on Alaska's Chilkoot Trail over Chilkoot Pass into Canada’s NW Territories down to Lake Bennet … segueing … directly into a 600mi solo kayak paddle to Dawson City,
   3.1997 BWCA : 2 week solo kayak paddle thru Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area’s watery wilderness maz??? Class Reunion, Genesee River paddle & Erie Canal
   4. Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone NP, WY: 4 day solo kayak camping circumnavigation of Yellowstone Lake in Yellowstone NP

C. 1^st Alaska Road trip: (1996/56)    K9 AK roads

In 1996, always enthralled with Alaska’s Alcan highway, its great poet, Robert Service * & novelist, Jack London, my Roadtrek RV van & I traveled up Alaska & Canada’s West coast on an Alaskan Ferry to Skagway, in Canada’s NW Territories [ytlk: to come]

* https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45082/the-shooting-of-dan-mcgrew

Anecdote: Friend Mary’s death:  Waiting in line minutes before boarding my Alasakan Ferry in Prince Rupert, abruptly I became aware that my name was blasting over the dock’s loudspeaker. So strange!

I rushed to the ticket office to learn that, “Scott, Mary Mead has died in a horse accident.”  A paragon of character & quality, my close rancher friend was dead.

Fighting the impulse to immediately return to Jackson, I continued on with dreams of Mary that plagued my Alaskan sleep further crystlizing the view of MY own final horizon

Off the ferry in Skagway, I spent 2 days exploring its well preserved buildings, museum, waterfront and the old cemetery of heroes & villains. Next morning I drove a few miles away to explore Dyea, the actual start of the Chilkoot Trail, explored its ruins and walked a couple miles up the Chilkoot Trail. 

Next morning I left Skagway traveling north to join Route 2 following the Yukon River into NWT, Canada’s NW Territories (NYT) & up to Dawson City’s historical 1897 Alaskan Gold Rush site.

For several days I explored Dawson City’s legendary streets & buildings including Robert Service’s preserved cabin & wandered up the Klondike River into the original gold fields with its ravaged landscape and huge abandoned gold dredges: giant pond-bound steamboat factories. I read Robert Service’s poems often to ‘seize’ the spirit.

Then, continuing on into Alaska, I stopped for 2 hitchhiking ladies who, with some girlfriends, had canoed the Yukon River from Lake Bennet to Dawson Creek.   I was impressed. The bug bit; I was infected. 

Driving back thru Southern Alaska & British Columbia to Jackson, my plan began to hatch.  

Notes:
    1. Always I was trying to validate my self-worth with outdoor adventures that challenged my fears, confidence, & skills.
    2. I knew/know that some of my ‘challenges’ may seem 'Lightweight ' to many, but we define our own challenges.

D. 2^nd Alaska’s Chilkoot & Yukon trip: (1997/57)

Rash 

Inspired by the 2 Yukon-canoeing ladies I met on last year’s Alaskan roadtrip, I decided that to ‘relive' the gold rush of Alaska I had been reading about AND to truly empathize with the Robert SErvice poems I so dearly loved, …I had to retrace the Stampeder’s entire route myself. (called ‘stampeder’ because they ‘stampeded’ from all over the world at the ‘cry of gold.’

During that fall & winter I researched the Chilkoot Trail & Yukon River route, bought a Current Designs kayak, took kayak lessons AND a professional’s 3 day kayak overnight trip, assembled my gear, & tested my equipment on a couple overnight weekends on Teton National Park lakes.

1. Research & Preparation: 

My adventure had 2 components:
    First phase was a 3 day hike from Dyea, Alaska up Chilkoot Trail over Chilkoot Pass into Canada’s Northwest Territories (NWT) thru deep woods, past old gold rush campsites with artifacts strewn about, a steep rocky climb over the snow covered Chilkoot Pass & a couple of downhill days alongside Yukon River’s headwater lakes to the south end of Lake Bennet. where my hidden kayak awaited.

Second phase: Arriving at Lake Bennett, I retrieved my kayak, switched out my backpack gear for my kayak gear and explored this historic gold rush campsite with its extant rough-hewn bark church. 

Next morning I pushed off for a 2 week, 600 mi paddle to Dawson City, NWT, camping on deserted shores & islands, stopping at 1 or 2 towns, poking inside abandoned original winter Roadhouses, briefly sharing back waters with a moose, negotiating huge water boils, avoiding deadly log jams & negotiating my anxiety attack as water rushed in from another rivers. 

2. Adventure Starts:

I drove & camped western British Columbia’s back country dirt roads to NWT’s Route 2 to Skagway & Dyea.  I relished the long miles thru rugged British Columbia & NWT’s rugged landscape, historical sites, random spontaneous hikes & kayak paddles, Nat’l Parks, museums en route to Skagway & Dyea.

Before Skagway, Dyea & my Chilkoot Trail trek start, I drove 1st to Carcross to find a fishing guide to 
    1) ferry my kayak down Lake Bennet where the Chilkoot Trail meets it, 
    2) pick up my backpack, etc at Lake Bennet after I had started paddling,
    3) drive my van & I down to Dyea and dump me for my next early morning start, and finally, 
    4) drive my Roadtrek to Dawson City & park it for me to pick up when I arrive by kayak in a few weeks. Great service.

After the fishing guide dropped me in Dyea late that afternoon to camp before my next morning’s start, I explored the tiny Dyea town’s ruins. Dyea was the Trail’s original starting point because it had a long pier into the bay that could unload stampeders & their gear directly onto the beach.

Early next morning I started up the Chilkoot Trail.  Nothing more thrilling than walking in the footsteps of history. Its raw historical charisma.

The first couple of days are a moderately undulating trail through thickly wooden forests climbing up to The Scales, punctuated by original Klondike's campsite ruins & artifacts (an old cast iron stove. What stories it could tell.)  

Finally, after a steep climb to The Scales, a Stampeder could see the “Golden Stair's” arduous climb to the top of Chilkoot Pass. At the top of Chilkoot Pass, you crossed the border from Alaska into NWT & where Klondykers met Canada’s legendary Mounties who would not let you pass until you had stacked the required 2000# of gear on top of the pass, thereby, hopefully, ensuring your survival. So, the usual Stampeder made 10-14 trips up the “Golden Stairs” unless he paid others to do it. 

The Scales were so named, because here Klondikers could opt to have their stuff weighed on ‘scales’ for a price, and then carried to the top of Chilkoot Pass by local Native Americans OR just dump it. Many ‘dumped’ what they did not want to carry up or pay another to do. The ground was littered with broken pottery shards, & other such debris. I picked up a few artifacts, then tossed them back to preserve that history for others.  Pik of “Golden Stairs”

From The Scales I could see the Chilkoot Pass and soon quit poking around in the dirt, hiked over to the Golden Stair’s base AND started my all-fours scramble up the snow-less yet jagged rocky slope of scree, ultimately reaching the snow-covered, mist-shrouded Chilkoot Pass top. 

I saw only 3 people on the Trail, 1 was turning back visibly shaken after seeing the Golden Stairs route. 2 others were young powerful European men dressed in the Klondiker’s authentic wool plaid shirt & humping boldly upward.

On top I broke out of the cloudy mist & snow quickly moving past small ponds & stark glacial features to a snow-free campsite overlooking Lindeman Lake & beyond it, Lake Bennett. 

Next day I arrived at Lake Bennet, switched backpack for my kayak, then poked around this historical site & its rough-hewn church, sleeping early for tomorrow’s early departure down long narrow Lake Bennet.  PIK K9 Lake Bennett

Panic Attacks:

Anecdote 1: Scary wind-blown waves: Paddling away from shore, within a 1/2  hour I confronted 4-6 foot high waves driven by a hard wind blowing spray off the waves into my face. I had kayaked 2-3” waves in Teton Nat’l Park, but these waves towered over me.

I became so gripped with fear (1^st panic attack) that I paddled directly to shore & sat staring at the water embarrassed & ashamed of myself. Unwilling to quit, I spent a ½ hour talking to myself:   “Scott, you planned & prepared for this & frankly you don't have much choice. You're out in the wild so get a grip & get back out there.”  I was soon paddling again confidently.  Facing yourself may be life’s hardest challenge.

Anecdote 2:  Scary big river junction: Several days later, south of Carmacks, the Big Salmon River's outpour slams directly into the Yukon’s water creating huge boils & mixing large, mostly submerged ‘lost lumber-camp’ logs into the turmoil.     [YT LINK: Yukon River (to come)]. 

My panic attack in the middle of this caldron seemed instantaneous & full-blown, with no close beach to paddle to. 🥲.  Yet, I can still recall, irrationally considering ‘jumping out of my kayak & running to shore.’  Absurd, of course.

Again, I talked myself thru it, “ Scott, you have the best equipment, you have trained for this & there is no REAL danger unless you let yourself succumb to the panic.” Minutes later I was back in control, shaken, but never again so frightened until ... Mexico City’s Zocalo & never again since. 

Great psychological, physical & historical adventure.

Anecdote 3: Terrible body rash & anxiety: I did this trip under a severe mental &
physical medical handicap: A full-on body rash with large welts that migrated slowly across my entire body during the day accompanied by irrational anxiety, quelled within a couple of hours only by daily prednisone drug. 

 

 

I give you an photo image so you can appreciate my issue, NOT to cavalierly gross you out. Notice puffy swollen face & lips  Rash PIK: 

 

Not a distraction you want during a solo wilderness adventure. Always, pushing myself to test my my courage and skills against my vacillating sense of self-worth and fears.

E. Boundary Waters Canoe Area: (1998 Reunion(58))

A year before, someone showed me a map of the BWCA, let me borrow her books and the map. She planted the seed. 

Almost immediately I decided that I had to visit this last great U.S. wilderness canoeing area. August 2nd, a year later, I pushed away from shore.

The BWCA Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is a huge wilderness maze of varying-sized lakes & ponds connected by multiple portages & narrow, shallow, barely moving streams of often tiny connecting waterways. Access & numbers are controlled, yet ironically you can go anywhere & exit anywhere.

Few places seemed so remotely devoid of humanity than was the BWCA. Totally on my own. I had no backdoor, no ‘time out.’. In 1998 there was no Google Maps or iPhone, my BWCA map was barely adequate, and few rescue resources were available in BWCS’s depths. You either knew exactly where you were at all times or …you were lost. Others were seldom seen. 

Often I would arrive a point where I wasn’t sure of my location. I would back up to the last ‘for sure’ location and start again. Unlike the Yukon which flows inexorably downstream to Dawson City, BWCA has no such failsafe.

Anecdote: Lost portage: 2nd morning I mistakenly paddled past the correct portage I had scoped out the night before to a wrong portage, made 2 heavy kayak & gear hauls until I realized my error, backtracked, reloaded, paddled a 1/4 mile to correct portage and completed it.   Very energy-draining.

Now, it appears that BWCA resources & tech are well-developed & available. My applause.

 

Wings

1. Intellectual curiosity:   Intellectual curiosity is just a fancy term for Curiosity; the inherent, unquenchable thirst to know everything that might protect us or enhance our Quality of Life..

Having negotiated 40 years of 'life' already, we have grappled with fear & curiosity to find a mate, a career & hopefully pleasurable, satisfying pursuits - sports, arts, history, etc.

While fear may still haunt us, as it always should, today's cell phone/internet tech offers us near-infinite curiosity prompts at the touch of a finger.  

Perhaps, your curiosity was seriously dulled by the demands of your life making you believe it is lost forever. Not true. It is inherent in your DNA. You may stifle, but not destroy it.  

It remains potentially unlimited & can be restored & enhanced.

2. imagination & creativity:   Imagination & creativity may also have been seriously smothered by boring, possibly useless education, or career & family demands, BUT it is a sleeping giant, potentially unlimited & restorable.

3. self-worth & other personal character traits:  again, perhaps seriously sabotaged by boring education, painful marriage or relationship or unfulfilling career choice.

Yet, you are still the Master of your Fate if you choose to be so. Easy? Probably not! But it can be done.

4. Extracurricular life: Perhaps for the first time in 14,000 years, we modern American middle-class humans have free time daily and in retirement to pursue our own interests & pleasures.  We have a greater variety of free-time activities available than any human at any economic level at any time in the history of man.

Yet, many of us squander this free time throughout our lives on passive, frivolous non-effort pursuits, like watching football. ad nauseam, binge-watching streaming TV series & Netflix ...  requiring little curiosity, imagination, or creativity, while squandering, one of mankind's greatest Quality of Life opportunities.

In contrast, ask yourself what you do that takes advantage of the profound, powerful complex creativity, imagination, and curiosity, machine dangling between your ears?

Do your hobbies or activities require effort (hiking kayaking, tennis)? Have you ever investigated classical music, renaissance art or history that you randomly encounter during life?

Is it possible that if you briefly explored those venues, you might be excited to pursue further… and enjoy?

Anchors

Urban myth suggests that in our 40s through 60s we may encounter a "midlife crisis " for different "overload" stressors including excess emotional instability, negativity, and crucially, major changes over a year's period. Basically juggling too many activities at one time.

Research apparently suggests NOT having a crisis at any point in your life is extremely unusual. Only the underlying reasons differ decade to decade.

Women apparently suffer more high-level distress "crossover" stressors between work & family demands.

Our response to such crisis is usually either redirection, acceptance or accommodation that you hope will set you on a better path.  Midlife job changes seem to be beneficial if these people didn't feel stuck.

Our 50's, may be plagued with crises caused by both 20s /30s issues AND  40s>60s issues i.e. ill health & loss of a loved one (parent), looming retirement concerns & heightened awareness of mortality can forment a longterm uneasy 'crisis.'

Men's job concerns dominate, but coupled with a far more important and impactful, “Holy crap, I’ve got a lot to do.” paranoia.

Ironically, midlife crisis folks suffer such stressors because they actually have more control over their lives; they are not so locked in , can sense ability to change tan earlier,

Equally interesting, and good, midlife folks score higher on almost every measure of cognitive functioning than they did when they were 25,  Verbal ability, numerical ability, reasoning, and verbal memory all improve by midlife.

OTOH ths may be the cusp upon which cognitive function begins its inexorable mid-50s to early 60s decline, as we know.

    1. Foreign Travel: 

NOTE: As stated before, I discuss Travel because I DO NOT want you to miss-out on such an exciting, & fulfilling life experience because you are UNAWARE of foreign travel options: 

In our 50s, we are approaching the 'fish or cut bait' stage of life for foreign travel. Hopefully, you are in good health & financially secure thru retirement, but loss of a parent or close friend may force you to become aware of your final abyss 20 or 30 years ahead. My father's death death did that for me.

This highly predictable 😃 abyss may goad us into maximizing our remaining Quality of Life. Foreign travel may be one exciting route to search for such fulfillment.

Realistic Travel Requirements: To do so we have to realistically assess our current 50s travel criteria:
      A. Health: current & immediately foreseeable health status,
       If reasonably healthy all travel may be available including my SIT (solo independent traveler) travel. If health issues, even the worst case handicapped can do Big Bus Touring & Cruising. IOWs, you can tailor foreign travel to your capabilities [pplk"    ]

    B. Comfort required: If wealthy enough, you can travel at the Brad Pitt level, if not you can do as I do, 'Close to the ground and in the dirt.' The full range is available.

Anecdote: My sister: once,  I offered my sister & husband  Alaskan Coast Cruise tickets, but when she insisted that she had to have an outside cabin with ocean view, I retracted my offer.

    C. Sense of Adventure: Depending on factors 1 & 2 above you can travel at whatever level of adventure pleases you from cushy cruise ship deck chairs to mountain treks through China's rice terraces. 

    D. Financial ability: If Brad Pitt - no issue. Somewhere between Brad & I, ... you must find your financial travel niche. It's not about the money. It's about the experience.

If not, adjust your finances to match the kind of travel mode (SIT), trip length, etc. to do some foreign travel.  
            Don't  presume, "It can't be done."  

Please scroll down to 'Failure to Invest' for a solution discussion.

Regardless of my net worth, I traveled as though I had very little money, even though my day pak & luggage carried substantial hidden US dollars for emergencies.

I traveled "close to the ground", "in the dirt" sleeping &  cooking in clean hostels, eating street food, local's cheap transportation & walking. Using small day trips only when practically necessary.

Years from now when perhaps too old or infirm to travel, I don’t want you to look back and wish you would have traveled more.

[pplk: Travel Wisdom: Travel Benefits] [pplk: Travel Wisdom: Travel Benefits]

    2. Lacking High school diploma: At 50, you have already resolved this dilemma, if any, a long time ago.

OTOH, if dissatisfied with your current career, choose to change it or add another. you have 15 to 20 years before retirement. 

Anecdote: teaching and garage doors:

QUOTE: “You don't need college to learn stuff. Everything is available basically for free.   
You can learn anything you want for free."  
Elon: Jan 27, 2023

    3. Marriage & children: 
Like the 'high school diploma' issue, you have probably already navigated through the child-rearing and maybe college years of your children with you and your wife looking forward to the freedom of an empty nest.

You may now have complete freedom to design the balance of your life, including foreign travel. Your greatest risk may be to succumb to complacency or the fear of the nest's emptiness instead of its potential.

I have friends who retired early (60's) & devoted their life to their grandchildren. IMO, he sought security & sense of purpose. Ironically, grandchild engagement, intellectual pursuits, and foreign travel are all possible. 

Anecdote: Clark's wife died too soon: ...just after they had moved cross country to be near their son. Clark threw himself into his grandchildren's happiness, sharing new experiences and enhancing his own quality of life.

Some grandparent's tradition is to take their extended family or high High school graduating senior on a European trip PIK K9. Financially & intellectually, activities & new adventures can all be an extended family grandparent-driven experience. You have only to imagine it, design it, and do it.

 

    4) Financial Security:

Let's be blunt. At 50, if you are not financially secure now it is because you failed to become financially literate & invest wisely. You can either wallow in your self-justifying excuses or you can admit your failure, become financially literate and commit to your future financial success.  [pplk: Bio 20: Investing Track]

 Your solution, if you wish one, is to become financially literate, rearranging your personal finances effectively prudently, & profitably to invest in real estate or stocks.

It is essential that henceforth you must become financially literate, using your current income & any possible additional income to prudently invest for an increasing net worth.

If you have reasonably secured your financial future and retirement, then you are free to indulge your success in the Quality of Life you choose, including foreign travel. (costly hotel vs hostel). 
                            Your money, your call.

OTOH, if you have not secured your financial future and retirement you can either:

    1) continue blissfully into your future financially strapped to work until you die , OR,
    2) if you're willing to "take this horse by the tail and face your situation", you may yet successfully strive financially to secure your financial future and retirement including some foreign travel.

This Will not be easy. It will demand the best of your character to pull off……

Some suggestions:

1. Personal finances:  
   a. Expenses & Payments: Make an accounting of your monthly expenditures: utilities, food, alcohol, home, auto, credit card & loan payments.   Your goal now is to reduce or eliminate all payments and debts, so that you will have surplus investable money.

   b. House: if you own or rent a house or apartment much larger than you need for an empty nest family, then sell your home & buy or move into a small condo. Your empty house may NOW  be a self-indulgent 'money pit' like a sailboat.

Anecdote: Sold my lagre log house: When I returned from 3 months travel amongst relative por rural folk, I reaized my big house was not reall a 'home'. It was sold within the month for a modest condo, rental units & foolish, ignorant stock purchases. 

I had converted a house continually under construction, demanding massive labor in time with a great long-term potential into a simple, fully built, low maintenance, condo, and rental union units parentheses ultimately great blessing.)

 Completely freeing me to more enjoy my personal pursuits parentheses reading/writing/kayaking/hiking/mountain biking)& , of course, almost 20 years of foreign & domestic  travel.

   c. Vehicles: if you have payments for vehicles that flatter your ego, but undermine your long-term investment potential,  sell those vehicles for something without payments that still serves your needs. Pseudo assets (cars, expensive furniture, expensive dinners, etc.) lose money limiting other choices.

   d. Unnecessary Expenses: ... If you flatter yourself with expensive meats, fancy restaurants & wines, and multiple UN-used online subscriptions, you are squandering.

Immediately reduce the expenses and eliminate
unnecessary subscriptions.

 Read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by  Kyosaki

2. Investing:    
    a. Become financially literate quickly:
         1. search the internet for advice
         2. Review my biography's investing experience [jlk:  ] with stocks & real estate; risks & potentials.
         3. Listen to Jim Cramer's podcast Mad Money with attention to 'new investor strategies'
        4. Read Robert Kyoskai's " "Rich Dad, Poor Dad"

IMO, stocks are the easiest & quickest way to grow net worth versus real estate, which can require a great deal of sweat equity skills, $ investment & time. Educate yourself past your fears. Ordinary people will become millionaires in the next 5-10 years by investing in stocks.

Real estate has excellent potential but often a much longer time Horizon than you may have.

QUOTE:
“You don't need college to learn stuff.
Everything is available basically for free.   
You can learn anything you want for free."  
Elon: Jan 27, 2023

    b. New career or income source: Find a new career or additional source of income that excites you and makes money. Remember colleges fraudulently suck away your money, indebting you while a 'trade' will pay you as you learn to increase your income over time.

Anecdote: teacher & garage doors: While teaching, I also sold, installed and repaired garage doors for extra side income

 

,

 Questions to ask me
  or yourself!

 4. Travel: 

    a) Am I too old for foreign travel? 

6) What, right now, in my life, what could I begin to change that would help achieve my goals which may or may not include travel?

Why, 25 later years later did a trip to Rome with my High school students STILL not ignite the passion? 

3) Why 3 years later did I finally decide I NEEDED to travel to Mexico?  

4) Why did that 1 week spring break Mexican trip ignite the next year’s 3month RV van trip thru Mex, Guat & Belize FINALLY ignite a passion for 20 more years of increasingly more passionate foreign travel?

4) Was it a mistake to wait so long? Should I have traveled earlier? ..  more often? 

“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”

 

― Omar Khayyám

c) Financial security vs life dream fulfillment (hedge fund manager vs train horses

 

A. Marriage:

 

B. Work

 

 

6) What, right now, in my life, what could I begin to change that would help achieve my goals which may or may not include travel?. 

Note: for for timing purposes, I must've quit working after the dating game so either late 28 or 29 and I took over the laundromat shortly after that somewhere between 29 and Erwin Wasey advertising maybe 32 they started law school at 35 so means I started thinking about it in the early part of by 35

VI. Investing track:

Somehow, some way, when about 24 or so, I had an epiphany: “Owning real estate’ might be an average man’s route to financial security & success.”

Anecdote: Real estate investing inspiration: At 23 while selling Cutco Cutlery door-to-door on a Saturday morning in Portland, Oregon, I met a man painting a small house. We chatted, he indicating it was one of several rental houses he owned.

His inspiration was “ “How I turned $1000 into One Million in my spare time.” by William Nickerson. I too bought & read that book.  20 years later Nickerson updated it: "How I Turned $1 million into Five Million in Real Estate in My Spare Time” 😃

Several years later in Manhattan Beach, I recalled that incident, read the book. I still have a well-worn copy.

    A. California City quasi-scam:  (Getty PIK in emails OR K9 California City

Excited, but poor, my 1^st ‘investment’ was a quasi-scam real estate development pie-in-the-sky lot called California City located out in S Cal’s desert. After a year of monthly payments, I realized it was semi-worthless, reneged and gave back ‘my’ lot so they could sell it to the next sucker.

Anecdote: Irony, a month ago & almost 60 years later, an article popped up on my iPhone entitled: “California's third largest city (California City) is a mostly empty, forgotten dream.”https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/california-city-planned-community-explained-18476273.php

    B. Costa Mesa duplex:

Fortunately, my vision did not die. Later, I visited a Manhattan Beach real estate broker, Bill Woodbury, seeking his counsel on rental property investments. He helped me buy a duplex in Costa Mesa, Cal. My tenants were 3 prostitutes whose children lived in the garage; the unit was run down & flea-infested.

After evicting the prostitutes I had to clean, learn to repair plumbing & electrical, paint, landscape & replace carpets. I lived in Manhattan Beach, so I drove 20 mi each morning to work at Daily Advertising Agency on LA’s Wilshire Blvd, after work I drove 50 miles to Costa Mesa to remodel, & then later each evening I drove 40 miles back to Manhattan Beach.

I enjoyed managing & maintaining property myself, even if the learning curve was steep and net income low or negative. Constantly scrimping by on my advertising mail room job's income plus a big box store weekend job.

While my father remodeled part of our home and did all the upkeep and maintenance and repairs, he never thought to involve me. Perhaps he did not want me distracted from his white collar college path. IDK. 

Through my 20s & into my 30s I bought more rentals often with little or no money down & high monthly payments … always struggling to make the loan payments which kept me constantly broke.

I did all management, maintenance & remodeling myself — intentionally chaining myself to my real estate believing it would payoff someday. (it did.)

Anecdote My view of volleyball players below:  Once, as a part-time 'handyman' at 26 or so, I was waterproofing a roof overlooking Manhattan Beach where men & women my age played volleyball. I can still remember looking down at them thinking to myself, “Someday I won’t have to work. … and maybe you will." I wasn't wishing them ill-will; merely reinforcing my vison of my future.

VI. InvestingTrack:   
      1. What is financial literacy?     Financial literacy is the understanding & use of financial knowledge & skills broadly related to YOUR personal finances & investing —both intertwined.

      2. Why are most Americans financially illiterate?   
Thanks to counter-productive K-12 & university systems, the vast majority of American graduates (& their parents) are financially illiterate.            Ignorant of ………..
                                  1. personal money management, 
                                   2. credit card debt & car loans, and 
                                   3. investing. 

Most no nothing of bank's checking account loop-hole terms or about rental property or stock investments because:
        1. Useful Financial Literacy is NOT taught as general core knowledge in high school or college except perhaps tangentially in business major classes. I suspect most teachers are NOT financially literate
        2. Neither my parents, nor anyone else I knew, invested nor discussed it if they did, particularly real estate even though they owned our home.
        3. Naive Investment myths: 1) no money, & 2) no reason to learn about if no money.

    A. Personal Financial Literacy;
        1. Why is financial literacy a life skill all should have?

         1. CCs & personal bank loans:   Financial illiteracy or ignorance benefits the banks with --
            a. 3% credit card transaction fees it charges your retailer which, if wise, they pass on to you.
            b. more significantly, late paying card holders may suffer exorbitant fees & increased interest rates:
                1) late-pay fee 
                2) default Interest rate jumps as high as 29.9% or more AND can last for 6 months unless extended by more late pays.
                3) If not paid promptly, you pay interest on the late fees.*
                4) late pay reported to credit agencies damaging your credit score
                5 If credit score ‘drops’ bank can auto-increase your interest rate.
                6) Penalty Annual Percentage Rate (APR) increases can last for at least six months, but can be longer if you continue to make late payments.
                            * this is ‘destructive’ compounding interest — the worst.

 

         2. Credit Cards, car, RV & boat bank loans often catapult folks into permanent high-interest credit card & loan debt, .. often completely negating even the thought of retirement investment money almost guaranteeing a McDonald’s job in old age.

   D. Why do banks advertise cards heavily to college students?   They are most vulnerable to credit card mis-use (ignorant & naive) that will soon be working & acquiring debt.     Too cynical? You decide.

   E. Why do banks, colleges & universities promote almost unrestrained student loan borrowing?   [plk: Student Loan debt fiasco]

X Anecdote: On a Saturday morning in Portland, Oregon: selling CUTCO cutlery door to door at 22. I countered a man painting a small house. We chatted, he indicated it was a rental house of which he owned several.

He had been inspired after reading “ “How I Turned $1000 into One Million in My Spare Time.” by William Nickerson. 20 years later Nickerson updated it: "How I Turned $1 Million into Five Million in Real Estate in My Spare Time” 😃

Years later in Manhattan Beach, I recalled that incident, and read the book. I still have a well-worn copy.

  

B. Retirement Investing:

Other than a lucky lottery or inheritance, investing wisely throughout life is the best, and perhaps the ONLY strategy for work-free retirement & its enjoyment. 

Most do not get retirement-wealthy from work income, but rather from investing some portion of that work income regularly over their working years. 

Investment knowledge & skills refers to:
    1. investment kinds, characteristics & risks/opportunities
    2. practical ‘How to.’ investing knowledge & skills.

1. Why are most Americans ignorant of investment literacy?   (repeat)
    a. Pragmatically useful Investment Literacy is NOT taught as general core knowledge in high school or college perhaps because most teachers/professor are investment illiterate.
     b. My father worked for Eastman Kodak when once a viable company & accumulated their stock without deeper thought. His Kodak & family home were investments by default, not thru investment literacy. Obviously he never discussed investing with me.

2. Are there additional reasons most people, the young, in particular, do not invest?   When I ask, most sheepishly admit they should be investing for retirement, but haven’t for several reasons:
    1) more focused on immediate ‘fundament basic needs: food, lodging, fun, etc.
    2) focused on critical ‘life choices’: career, marriage/kids & freedom’s fun.
    3) At early 20s very little incentive to dwell on 3+ decades in the future, particularly when finally free to make own lifestyle choices. 
    4) “I have no money to buy stocks?”  

Yet, Jim Cramer, TV stock guru bought stock when young living in his car;   now worth over $200 million
    5) “I have no money, so, NO reason to invest in stocks.”

Yet, today you can buy a fractional share of some stocks for $5 minimum. (Charles Schawb)
    6) scared off by other’s risky claims which justifies NOT learning.
    7) If youths quickly make critical fundamental commitments/decisions - student loans, marriage, children, home, car and maybe foreign travel, the resulting financial burden may place them in debt quicksand for long periods with no foreseeable out.
    8) If they choose an expensive lifestyle - new cars, large home, expensive college education, they may be deep debt long after their children, have moved out on their own, if they finally do.

 

Anecdote: Econ class teacher: 

1) How to Skills: Had classroom stock games, 

2) Invited stock brokers to talk stocks & mutual funds.

Only several years later did I realize stock brokers are simply ‘shills’ for their company’s self-servingly agenda. AND that mutual funds are, in gthe vast main, very bad investments. 

I was so ignorant. 

I touted ______________________ until years later I learned extremely few were actually good investment.

 

c. Why is ‘time’ a young adult’s greatest investing asset?

Sad irony of this illiteracy is that youth wastes investing’s most powerful asset —time … for 2 reasons:

1. Even when young investor’s lose $ occasionally once in a while, they have rest of their life to recoup the loss.  At 83, I don’t have that ‘back door.’

2. Compounded interest is a valid investment concept. Understand it!!!

3) Good investments (S&P index fund) tend to increase in value over time creating profit or gain. 

 

Anecdote: In 1979 immediately after moving to Jackson Hole I bought 3 ½ acres of beautiful property for $65,000 on the Snake River looking north to the Grand Teton mountain & west to the Jackson Hole Ski Area. 20 years later I sold it for $1.25 million. Today it would be worth $3-5+ million. 

 

Anecdote: Apple (AAPL) stock: once: On 3/11/2010 I bought shares of Apple company at $8.01 which today are worth $168/share. 

 

Compounded interest bank accounts and stock dividend auto-reinvesting roll over into next years increases …. so, last year’s interest ALSO earns interest adding to the grand total. Unfortunately inflation & bank’s fees & low interest rate usually cause bank accounts to lose value over time. 

 

d. What is the financial status of most retirees?:

Recent GOBankingRates survey found that most Americans have less than $50,000 saved for retirement — the majority (36%) have less than $10,000 saved and an additional 27% have between $10,000 and $50,000 as of Mar 20, 2023. Much of that is in the family home most don’t want to leave or sell.

 

Imagine if that is your net worth when you retire at 67 and may have 20 + years of life during which all costs keep rising. If you did not invest early, your options may be 1) live with kids, 2) keep working, if allowed, McDonalds or welfare.

[pjlk: Investing in Real estate:

 

VII. Curiosity:

Within 2 years after college, I felt my intellectual curiosity slowly revive.  Inherently, obsessively curious.

VIII: Travel: 

    A. Early 20's travel:

I traveled the 1960’s somewhat unpopulated ‘real’ West of Northern Idaho, Montana, and NE Wyoming servicing & selling Alberto Culver shampoo to small drug stores in tiny townlets. I loved the openness of the west, the freedom of long drives between dinky Montana’s drugstore towns, weekend hikes (??), and the small western town museum's local-only history.

        Anecdotes:  
            1) Roundup, MT’s: ‘original hanging tree’:  (50+ mi N of Billing) small town with its original hanging tree) later moved into town for the edification of visitors. A noose always hanging.

            2) K-C WY: Site of Wyoming’s Johnson County War (aka Wyoming Range War) between cattle ranchers & sheep headers; basis for the Steve McQueen movie ’Tom Horn.” I still remember the abrupt silence when I asked some folks at the local bar about it.     Even the court records had been sealed until the last participant had died. 

           3) My only nite in jail:  Irresponsibly passing someone over a solid yellow line just before a County Sheriff's car rose towards me over a small rise & pulled me over. He advised the fine. And I still remember telling him, “You can take me to jail because I don't have any money." He did. Next morning judge let me leave my 22. rifle as collateral. I remember the jail’s stifling heat, late evening meal & early breakfast with other prisoners sleeping as long as possible between meals to make the time pass. 

     Travel: I felt the excitement of this mix of work & car travel. Each day, another town, motel & restaurant just seemed like freedom. I am sure this prompted my love of US & Canadian road trips, but I never even considered SIT travel thrill until decades later.

 

    B.  Mid 20’s Travel

    Dating Game TRAVEL:

At 28, I won the Dating Game TV show 3 times including an all-expense paid, fully chaperoned trip to ultra-exclusive 5 star Villa d’Este Hotel, on Italy’s Lake Como. Extending trip 2 weeks. I SIT solo visited several other countries. 

A good adventure, yet few travel memories, but returned early because trip seemed too soulless, too lonely; better done with a lover or friend, I thought.            Sadly, It did not inspire foreign travel.

Anecdote: Innocent, storybook romance: The experience also included an unanticipated, entirely innocent, storybook romance with a young heiress to an international beverage company; & our early morning drive to Lake Lugano, Switzerland for breakfast in Mr Healy’s last built Austen-Healy. A romantic storybook experience!         Indeed. I was way over my head.

I never thought of traveling abroad again. If I had, it could only have been an unjustifiable indulgence. In those days, life’s financial insecurity fears trumped travel.                                                 Survival, not travel, drove my life.      You get the point.

SEE BLOG, “Reasons I did not travel earlier” [pplk" ???: ]