On Being a Rolling Stone.

It must be obvious to anyone who’s been reading this blog for a while that my life is emptier now than it’s ever been. I was thinking about it today and remembering all those decades when life was full of work, travel, relationships and faith in the future.

Being an INFJ, I’ve always felt apart from the people around me anyway, but at least there were people there when I wanted them. There were new sights to see, battles to win, the thrill of being sent overseas on a big photographic assignment, the pleasure of having fiction published, and more. It’s nearly all gone now, but is that necessarily a bad thing?

You see, it occurred to me that when you’re in the autumn of your days and know that the end isn’t too far away, having an empty life means that you have less to lose when the axe falls. So then the question presented itself: is that a negative or a positive view?

One of Bob Dylan’s lyrics from Like a Rolling Stone came to mind: “When you got nothin’, you got nothin’ to lose.” I was fifteen when I first heard that line and it impressed me, as many of Bob’s lines did and still do. But let’s take the next few lines by way of context:

You’re invisible now you’ve got no secrets to conceal

How does it feel?

How does it feel?

To be on your own

With no direction home

A complete unknown

Like a rolling stone

Not much encouragement there then, but apposite nevertheless. Thinking on.