The Widower Contemplates Life at 1:30 a.m. After 49 Happily Married Years

Floyd, the widower, had 49 happy years with his 'bride' who passed

away four years ago - he's now just shy of 80 years old. 'I get up when I

feel like it, I eat when I feel like it, I drink when I feel like it, and I go to

bed when I feel like it', says Floyd of his present existence since her

passing. Here, he's been up for about 24 hours and is about to 'retire' for

the night. He says he goes to Nevada at least monthly for recreation.

Your ratings and critiques are invited and most welcome (Photo taken at

a late night truck stop/coffee shop.) If you rate harshly or very critically,

please submit a helpful and constructive comment; please share your

superior photographic knowledge to help improve my photography.

Thanks! Enjoy! John

The hooded figure in the background is a genuine philosopher - he spent months - perhaps years in this particular truck stop cafe writing a manuscript on his philosophy and had been in discussions with Floyd, depicted above.

 

Floyd is very intelligent, as is Neal (Neil?) the philosopher, background.

 

Oh, and the philosopher, having finished his manuscript, now spends his nights doing . . . . sudoku - at the same seat in the same truck stop.

 

The central tenet of his philosophy -- God is dead, or at least mankind 'made up the concept of God' (my paraphrase) for mankind's own purposes, because there really is no proven God.

 

John (Crosley)

Or remember what day of the week if I feel like it.

Excellent portrait and much more, a real social and psyhological study that could open a lot of questions...like why we have 20 or 30 years to think about things we could have done but we did not, or we should not done, but we have, and no one to learn him/her to avoid the same mistake... The see, know, can and want period is much shorter, I think.

I'm an anomaly.

 

I'm somehow youthful in some approaches and have a great deal of wisdom in others that befit my age.

 

I'm on the verge of what some would call 'retirement' and have ailments, but my shooting has just started; they'll have to pry my camera out of my cold, stiff hands maybe 20 to 40 years from now, the way I feel about it.

 

My girlfriend is less than half my age, and she sought me; not the other way around -- and she is happy with my 'vigor' -- no chemicals added -- loves my photography and helps me when we are together.

 

She is to thank for pointing out some wonderful scenes that I have captured.

 

Yet I have a view of the 'older years' too, and therein lies the conundrum.

 

In Ukraine where I spend a lot of time, people guess I'm decades younger - men my age simply do not exist in my shape or at all - almost all are dead.

 

I'm really an anomaly, and a vigorous one at that, and somewhat unbelievable to the Ukrainians if I tell them my truthful age (not revealed here), which I do, with gusto.

 

And that is my key to talking to just about anybody. I have a youthful spirit, and young people -- especially in the East -- call me the familiar 'you' instead of the formal 'you', and think nothing of it.

 

It just comes naturally.

 

Small children instantly connect with me for the reason that I finally learned how to 'connect' with their developing minds simply by how I look at them. (and I behave well around them, of course, and only if parents are around, or I keep a substantial distance).

 

And my age allows me to say to anybody younger that I've experienced their stage of life and discuss that with them, and also connect with those who are much older - they tend to trust me because I can discuss events of their days, as I know much of 20th C. history very well, and can discuss those things with ease.

 

So, I am well placed to tackle the questions you pose.

 

That is why I take such photos and do not shy from it.

 

I hope to provoke just the issues you point out -- but without being terribly self-involved, as I do not feel 'at one' with either 'old people' or 'young people' but with 'everyone' and at the same time being very much simply 'me'.

 

And as I photograph and viewers respond with ratings and comments rather positively generally, I am becoming increasingly happy that it is a positive reflection of who I am and what is is that I have become as I present myself to them through my photos and my life observations.

 

The questions you state are important and are questions that almost all will face eventually unless life is cut short, and I am in a unique position to pose them to almost all people and to help represent all ages. (or maybe I just flatter myself).

 

I do make a lot of friends with my subjects, as my comments must show. I do not just take photos -- so many have small 'stories' and anecdotes attached to them that show acquaintanceship -- however brief.

 

And true enjoyment in many or most cases with my subjects.

 

If only for a few moments.

 

Thanks Vladimir. You show again real insight.

 

John (Crosley)

Excellent portrait John.7/7anon.Best regards.Janusz.

Often I wondere where those anonymous rates come from, and it is helpful if sometime someone holds their cyber hand up and says 'that one is mine'.

 

Janusz, thank you for letting me know (I don't thank for high rates -- that would be pandering. I thank for the effort of leaving any honest and thoughtful rate at all and also taking the trouble to let me know.)

 

Best to you for going to such effort.

 

John (Crosley)

He seems to enjoy what he can of life.

 

He's going to Las Vegas again on the 16th. There are great bargains there; the town is about empty and good rooms go for as little as $30. and great rooms for less then $100, I know from personal experience.

 

Vegas is full of people like Floyd and also older married and retired couples right now, especially.

 

What happens in Vegas may 'stay in Vegas', but it's really pretty boring . . . . the high rollers are taking a pass . . . they lost all their money with Bernie Madoff who stole $50 billion including money from Columbia University, my alma mater, and numerous charities in his Ponzi scheme and other Ponzi schemes are coming out of the woodwork, as stock market losses prevent their paying off those who want to redeem -- one guy jumped out of a plane and pretended he crashed and was killed, only to be found on camera checking into a motel in a flight suit after he had parachuted from his plane hundreds of miles away, and picked up a prestashed motor scooter.

 

Life doesn't really change much.

 

Turns out 2008 was the year of 'bank collapses'.

 

Only no one knew all those things that collapsed were 'banks' because they did not call themselves banks and thus were not regulated.

 

In the future they will be, of course.

 

Libertarians and some Republicans who believe Capitalism can do no wrong and never needs regulation are crying for corporate welfare . . . . strange.

 

Meanshile, Floyd will go to Vegas and spend some time (and bucks). Maybe he'll win.

 

I wish him luck. He's a nice man (and was with two other men when I saw him, and appeared happy).

 

(Neal -- Neil, background, also was there, and we exchanged thoughts. He's working on a new portion of his philosophy, always overnight.)

 

That's the news from Witham's Truck Stop and Restaurant.

 

John (Crosley)