My Mom was a very good artist; she had some training, a mother who illustrated her own books, and an aunt who was a professional artist working in oils (Fera Webber Shear). Her chosen medium was acrylic, and her subject botanical illustration. I encourage you to click on that photo, see it as big as possible.
I spent half of a day this week going through old holiday greeting cards sent from all my parents' friends over the last couple of years. My task was to put together the mailing list for a belated holiday card, thanking my parents' friends for their kind wishes and telling them of my Mom's passing. There were certain generational trends in evidence. Among my parents' friends of longest standing, the themes of late retirement such as travel and grandchildren mixed with brushes against morbidity and mortality. There were also a number of cards from my Dad's students, and these showed the ripeness of latter working life, children married, thoughts of retirement mixed with the highest tide of professional and social attainment.
I need to get my own personal belated holiday cards out. Looking at the mailing list, I am seeing some stereotypical themes in my own age cohort. We are, mostly, in the endurance phase of our careers. Most, though not all have children, and some of those are starting to head off to college--but a few years and they will be entering the post-children phase of their lives. I, and a few others, are on different tracks. I have switched careers rather dramatically, and am starting from the bottom. We have no human kids. I'll be looking at a rather different set of milestones, but I have to say that I do like hearing about everybody else's. It gives me a good feeling to see my friends do well.
So. I'd better get to work on that card.
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