Do you have any "long-term pet projects" in your life?
I'm talking about those things that you might have started even a couple of decades ago, perhaps during a moment of fascination on a day off, by setting aside some things and maybe writing yourself some notes and determining that this is a project you'd really like to work on... later.
From talking to some of my friends, it seems to be something that happens to us quite often when we're in our 30s and 40s, and typically enormously busy with the stuff of life, raising kids, developing a career and all manners of other things that keep us from having enough time on our hands to undertake a hobby that actually demands quite a bit of aforementioned time.
But maybe we're serious enough that we actually start a box that we add to over the years and it lives at the back of our walk-in closet, or maybe in the attic. Sometimes we might even pull it out while we're on vacation start sorting it, getting it semi organized... and then vacation is over. So, we put it back in the closet, or back in the attic, reminding ourselves that we really do want to do something with this "some day."
Sadly, it often feels like "someday" is never going to arrive and then maybe a major move arrives in our life, or we're doing a major spring cleaning, and we reached that point where we look at our box with a sense of longing, but also with the realization that we may never have the time on our hands to start on this hobby/project.
Because Mrs. Denmarkguy and I are working on downsizing, I've come to realize that I have a few things like that that I would probably be better off just putting on eBay and selling, rather than hoping that one of these days I'm going to have time to deal with it.
Observe here that my talking about it has disintegrated from it being something I would really enjoy to being something I need to deal with.
For example, I have the beginnings of a coin collection sitting in the closet, made up of some coins I collected many years ago, to which I later added some coins from my auntie when she died, and then some coins from my parents when they passed away, and it always seemed like something good to do later in life. But I don't think I'm ever going to reach that point.
It's not that I'm not interested in coins anymore, it's more a case of realizing that there's actually no light at the end of the tunnel of life that I'm peering down... so why pretend?
Something similar holds true for Mrs. Denmarkguy who has a pretty substantial collection of antique and vintage postcards from around the world that she really loves and periodically takes out and looks at. Over the years she's added to it and I've sometimes added to it because I buy and sell paper collectibles, and it's basically a number of messy shoe boxes with postcards.
There's probably a really nice collection there, but it will require time (and lots of it) to catalog and organize.
Again, the nagging question hangs over our heads as to whether or not she (or we) are ever going to have time to work on and enjoy this collection, although it is primarily her collection not mine. Which leads to the question of whether there is a point we arrive at where we realize that we're never going to finish that thing we started 20 or 30 years ago?
Of course, we often tend to put off making such decisions because it feels like giving up, or even an admission of failure. But is it really?
For now, we'll likely do what we have long done: Not make a decision, yet. But I can also feel us getting closer to that point where the "this will never happen" realization sets in.
Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful weekend!
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2026.04.17 23:51 PST
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