It is said life is a circle. The term circle of life is an oft-used one from philosophy to the theater – though those two worlds are not terribly far apart. Life is thought of as a circle in which we return to some beginning point and continue around and around. In the sense of the culturally popular Lion King and The Legend of Kung Fu[1], the circle of life refers to the succession of generations and the handing of the torch from one to the other.
In my experience, the circle, as defined by traveling around and returning to whence one begins, is in caring for the two people whose life has been dedicated to caring for me. Recently, I began my role serving the greatest privilege I could ever ask for (and I have been the recipient of many privileges throughout life).
One day before Thanksgiving 2022, seven weeks before this essay was posted, I, and my brother and sister-in-law, packed up our parents’ belongings on the back of a trailer and hauled them 17 miles northeast to my home. He is 92, and she is 86. Both lucid and ambulatory. With a bit of shifting around of furniture and a relocation of my office to the basement, we were able to create a bedroom and a separate TV room for them. I keep my living room as a stimulus-free room for quiet time.[2]
Source: Unknown
Indeed, the lifestyle of a post-middle-aged bachelor is laden with a bit of a wrinkle, but adaptation is doable. (We still have the family hideaway near the beach to which I can escape for alone time.) More importantly, this adaptation is well worth it. I am in a position to provide for, care for, and spend quality time with two people who sacrificed to give me so much and support my many second chances in life. I am, if nothing else, a very blessed man.
[1] I never saw the contemporary “Lion King” on stage or on screen, but I have had the privilege to see “The Legend of Kung Fu” on stage in Beijing as part of a business school week-long ‘class trip’ visiting companies in China.
[2] In One’s Origins I share my affinity towards the Quiet Room.