70 Up A Very Fitting End

 I just finished the 7 Up! series. What a ride! It is LIFE, and life is a ride. It is meant to be enjoyed.

There's a lot to learn from this particular episode, 70 Up, because the participants are as old and as wise as we'll ever get to see them. Peter sings a song that had a line I want to highlight, "You just keep on chasing, no matter how far, something that was there all along". That reminds me of what I said about Neil, Peter's childhood mate, regarding his butterfly story; I said, "To realize after decades that you had it right when you were wee is part of the beauty of aging." 

Neil seems content, as he has since 56, when he started "taking positive action". That's a relief, because he may have had serious problems, but he was always philosophical and balanced. Peter, too, references depression, the same thing that altered Neil's life. What a shame that these two childhood friends had to suffer in solitude, when we now know that, as Neil so eloquently puts it, it's not something you chose, it's something you are. 

I knew that Nick died, but, seeing him in 70 Up was shocking. He was very much a man facing a very real mortality. Having been such a delightful child and a thoughtful, intelligent, beautiful man, he now appeared gaunt and colorless, but, even having suffered a stroke, he retained his acumen and exquisiteness. I am so glad that he made it into 70 Up, despite dying at age 65. "In my life, there's always been another episode of this coming up, so I'll miss it." Then the film cuts to what he said in 56 Up, about a time-lapse of a flower blossoming and then dying. He says, "Well, seeing that with a person is also amazing, because we don't see that. We're so busy seeing the day-to-day life of a person, that we don't see the big picture of how they change over time."

The point of the series, repeated over the 63 years it ran, was to prove the Jesuit maxim "give me a child of 7, and I will give you the man". The participants disagree about whether that's true or not. But this could never be settled, and it doesn't matter. They start to get emotional as the interviews come to a close. And I, too, choked up. It was an honor to see these people grow and change, and yet remain the same characters we met at 7. Jackie breaks down, twice, saying "thank you" at the end. No, Jackie, thank you, and all the others for showing us what it is to have a human life. Cheers!