kinitra's blog: "Old enough to know better, too young to resist."

Someone asked me last week what its like to turn 50. For one thing, it’s nice to be asked how you feel, at fifty. You get less and less of that (among other things) as you get older. I don't remember what I said, probably something stupid. It’s not easy to put into words. I mean, if you have to. If you’ve ever read 'Invisible Cities' by Italo Calvino, there is a part in the book that pretty much says it all. In the story, Marco Polo travels the Silk Road to China, to the Empire of Kublai Khan. When he gets to the capitol he befriends the great Khan and, acting as an emissary he travels around China and returns with reports of the many cities he has visited. Since Polo is a Venetian, and Khan is of course, Chinese, they can't understand each others language, at least at first. So Polo collects an object from each city he visits. Something that will describe to Khan what is important to know about a particular city. A button and thread maybe means they make clothing there. A shell for a fishing city on the Sea. Gold or a gem for a mining city. A scroll or a small musical instument to mean culture. Maybe a silk scarf and a smile to mean a beautiful woman Polo met. And so Khan would lay all these symbols out on a huge map of his empire, and study them, so he would know all the things he possessed. As the years passed the map became larger, and the pieces doubled and tripled and quadrupled and on and on until the Great Khan realized his vast empire was almost too big to comprehend. Eventually, Marco and Khan learned each others language and could speak fluently to each other. Khan still preferred the pieces and map, though, so they would sit in silence for hours, and together they would study the pieces on the map, wondering what it all really meant. Finally, one day Khan said to Polo, "tell me Marco Polo, when I understand what all the pieces mean, will I possess my Empire at last? "Sire, do not believe it", replied Marco. "On that day you will become just another one of the pieces". What’s it like to turn fifty? It’s when you begin to ask yourself what all the pieces mean, and wonder if you really want to know.