Reality on the back of an envelope

I have joined the Réseau FADOQ, Quebec's seniors' association. My official card came yesterday, packed with a plump brochure listing discounts for everything from campground stays to hand-painted lampshades. 

The discounts were heavy on items that vendors think people past 50 will buy: hearing aids, home hairdressing service, and appliqued sweaters. 

But it was the slogan on the back of the envelope that caught my attention: "An adequate quality of life." 

Le Duc thought it was unprepossessing, especially compared to the American Association of Retired Persons' punchy "Real Possibilities", or the lofty motto of  Canadian Association of Retired Persons' (the best acronym ever, CARP) "Making Canada the Greatest Place to Age".

But I said, "No, I love it! They charge a $30 annual fee. For your 30 bucks, you're not getting a third night free at a luxury spa in Tofino. You can save 10% on your bottle of olive oil. You want more than adequate, get an AmEx Black Card, bud."

I wondered what the Association that promotes "adéquate" is after. Sounds like the economic strategy called satisficing, which means sifting through alternatives to find an acceptable solution rather than the optimal one. (That's simplified; Herbert Simon was awarded a Nobel for this.)

I saw a no-nonsense Association Director in a cardigan saying, "Look, at this point we're not hopping on and off buses to cross Africa. How about a nice hike in the Charlevoix region?" I liked the egalitarian approach, the lack of lets-pretend. 

"What, in my life, is 'adequate'", I wondered, and for what is there want—not in the acquisitive sense, but in the second meaning, lack. What I lack is an expansive future, the possibility of many more decades unfurling, with luck— and the only way to deal with that is to be fully present in the time remaining.

Because no one is selling time, no matter what the price.

Slow food, slow clothing, and, I have decided, slow seasons. In Quebec, we try to hurry winter, to give it a shove by the end of February, because we're tired and pallid, and our boots are beginning to leak. This winter I'm not going to pine for spring on a -15C day. I want to make a January morning as welcome as an Indian Summer October one. This takes a good base layer and an even better attitude.

Posts here may become sporadic; I will limit time online now, not just in summer.

There is plenty to be grateful for in the World of Adequate. Thanks to FADOQ for reminding me that the collective good is a worthy goal; that alone is worth $30 per year.