Prom and the meaning of life

Letter from the editor

While photographing Bigfork’s prom on Saturday night, I only felt one thing - ancient. I know, just looking at the number of candles on my birthday cake, I don’t look that old, but as Indiana Jones once said: “It’s not the years; it’s the mileage.”

My 10-year high school reunion is this summer, and I feel like I’ve lived three lifetimes since then.

I started college - then stopped.

Got married.

Went back to college - and finished.

Lived in three different cities in two states.

Worked at four newspapers and two bike shops.

Made a trip or two to the Emergency Room.

The list goes on, but some days I think about all that and wonder, “Is that it?”

B-O-R-I-N-G.

Michelangelo carved the Pieta at age 23. Thomas Edison had his first patent at age 21. In 1478, at age 26, Leonardo DaVinci became a master painter. Mozart performed his first symphony, which he wrote, when he was 10. Alexander the Great took control of an empire before he was 21. John Calvin published “Institutes of the Christian Religion” when he was 26. Sir Isaac Newton became Europe’s leading mathematician by the time he was 24.

What about me? I hate math, I can’t paint, and the likelihood of me starting an imperial dynasty are slim to none. I don’t even own a house.

A few years ago, as I was complaining about not accomplishing anything, an older friend of mine gave me a discouraging piece of information. He said life could be segmented into three time frames. From ages 20 to 30, you figure out what you want to do. From 30 to 40, you become competent at something. From 40 to 60, you are productive.

His point was that I needed to have a long-term view accomplishment rather than constantly being frustrated that I’m not etching my name onto the list of historical overachievers right this second.

His suggestion, like all good advice, was meant to be ignored, which means I still worry.

Am I going to do anything worthwhile? Am I going to work so hard to climb a ladder only to find it was propped against the wrong wall? Am I going to accomplish anything that will make a good story someday?

Photographing those students at prom, I was at once swept with a mixture of pity and envy. They are about to be thrown to the wolves, but they are also about to unleash an unstoppable combination of talent, idealism and enthusiasm into the world.

History has shown again and again that one person can radically impact an entire culture.

And who knows, maybe I took your picture on Saturday.