Nifty Nifty Look Who's 50!

Uncle Timmy is 50 years young today! And, in honor of this milestone, Ted has compiled the following for his brother:

50 things for you to consider doing now that you’re 50

1. Work for Bill Clinton
2. Work for Jimmy Carter
3. Work for Barack Obama
4. Work for the Nature Conservancy
5. Work for the Sierra Club
6. Go on a trek in Nepal
7. Work at a fast food joint just to see what it’s like
8. Watch this video on TED: http://www.ted.com/talks/jr_s_ted_prize_wish_use_art_to_turn_the_world_inside_out.html (you may need to sign up for TED, but it’s free and pretty amazing. Plus you can get subtitles for the talks!)
9. Start a dog walking business
10. Write another book with Cheo
11. Think about what we should build on the land.
12. Come to the lake this summer. It’s not worth missing. Ever.
13. Imagine that it is raining in New Mexico.
14. Go to a rain dance.
15. Write about the rain, how sometimes it evaporates before it hits the ground.
16. Find someplace to float.
17. Start doing yoga. Write about it. Or don’t write about it. Or don’t do it and write about that. Or have nothing to do with the whole thing.
18. Read poems by Mary Oliver and then write a Mary Oliver poem, but consider using the palette of Van Gogh and the smell of rain hitting the concrete on a hot day in Minnesota.
19. Study a foreign language and consider how different the world feels when everything has another name, cadence, poetry. Consider that this is different for every speaker of that language, and every speaker of every language.
20. Go to Yosemite and climb half dome
21. Hike the Appalachian Trail
22. Go back to Scotland and enjoy the right to roam, especially in the highlands. Consider the northern and northeastern coasts, which I can tell you about, and which are worth knowing.
23. Visit the Deep South of the United States. Go in Autumn. Buy produce from people along the roadside and talk with them.
24. Go to Machu Picchu
25. Go to Japan and spend time in Kyoto, or somewhere in the countryside, maybe even up in Hokkaido in the deep snow. You can probably get a residency.
26. Work on a sheep farm in New Zealand.
27. Consider Africa.
28. Go to the wilderness in your own backyard. Move very slowly. Don’t rush to do it. Take it in. It will be hard at first. Take a step and look down. Look up. Look to your left. Look to your right. Touch the tree bark. How many colors is it? Pick up a rock. Consider its perfection. Smell the air. Repeat. Try to see how slowly you can move. At some point stop entirely and make sure that you are seeing everything. If you stop for long enough there is a good chance that things will come to you: birds, lizards, small mammals. The object is to move the shortest distance in the longest time, until you know the place you are, are connected to it. If everything goes well, this noticing and quiet will lodge insider of you and expand your appreciation of everything.
29. This same approach can be taken in a city, but it is harder because the energy of the city is running contrary to this idea. But it is also worth trying.
30. Explore food. Real food. What are people eating in other neighborhoods? Taste your food. Eat your most fabulous meals in the middle of the day or very early in the evening. Savor the fact that you have food and can eat it.
31. Make up band names and imagine the music that they would play. Play that music.
32. Invent an artist and imagine the art that they would make. Make that art.
33. Watch as many things as you can done by this guy on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tales+of+mere+existence&aq=f, especially “How To Break Up With Your Girlfriend in 64 Easy Steps.”
34. Write more. For yourself.
35. Write letters to people – not emails.
36. Have cake.
37. Go to the movies by yourself.
38. Get up really early and go someplace to watch the sunrise. That same day try to watch the sunset.
39. Go to used clothing stores. Try things on. Suits, fabulous printed shirts, pants. Explore. Clothes can make the man.
40. Talk to strangers.
41. Hold a sign.
42. Go to museums. Give yourself permission to walk quickly until something stops you. Don’t force it. When something stops you, enjoy it as long as you like, then move again until something else stops you.
43. See if you can get work on a farm, even one day a week.
44. Make something with your hands.
45. Take an accounting class. Why not?
46. Dream
47. Keep a dream journal.
48. Accept the love of others.
49. Love yourself.
50. Breathe in and out and in and out and in and out and in and out. Repeat in this pattern for at least another 50 years.

Happy Birthday, Uncle Timmy. We love you much!

xo, Ted, Tara and Una