You have to love a book where the first chapter is an exhortation to have a gin and tonic with a friend, followed by another encouraging the reader to eat chocolate daily. These seemingly glib indulgences led me to think about Bach, ballparks, and the bending of the old elbow. Stick with me here, it’s a fun ride.

The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly (2022) by Margareta Magnusson is a witty look at how to live and age gracefully well into your final third of life. Magnusson was introduced to the world through her bestseller The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning (or the clearing out of your unnecessary belongings so others don’t have to do it for you). This follow-up work — which is a short 140 pages because “old people don’t want to read 400 pages” — is a humorous yet useful look at how to approach life when more of it is behind you than ahead. It is simple and pragmatic advice.

Part memoir and part acquired wisdom from more than eight decades on earth, Magnusson encourages us not to fear death but to focus on what’s important now: beauty, friends and loved ones, those less fortunate, leaving a better place for your children and grandchildren. Along the way her advice includes admonitions to wear stripes (she likes them), live within your means, don’t resist new technology, let go of what doesn’t matter, keep an open mind, spend more time with young people, and have that gin and tonic with a friend on a regular basis. As one reviewer noted, these suggestions allow Magnusson to “philosophize on life’s greater meanings.”

The chocolate she recommends is a thumb in the nose of diet culture. The gin, instead of encouraging alcoholism, is a reminder to stop and smell the juniper berries while catching up with those who have known you the longest.

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I finished reading this book between two weekend trips that were my own little effort to live exuberantly. The first was a trip to Durham to hear our son, Andrew Bearden Brown, perform as the tenor soloist in Cantatas BWV 60 and 95 as part of the Bach Cantata Series of the Duke Chapel music series. Andrew was superb, singing before a close-to-full house of appreciative patrons and his delighted parents. The weekend gave us the opportunity to live exuberantly in the midst of the beauty of the music, the extraordinary architecture of the chapel, and the glory of nature’s offerings in the Sarah P. Duke Gardens.

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Then, for something completely different in the exuberance department, I flew to Cincinnati this past weekend to meet up with a former colleague and watch a Reds game. Yes, per Magnusson’s suggestion, adult beverages were consumed along the way.

This has been a great year for meeting friends over a baseball game.

As readers and friends know, I am on a bucket-list quest to visit all 30 Major League ballparks.** Because the Reds are so much fun this year, I made the decision to take advantage of frequent flyer miles and check another park off the list.

Cincinnati was once the nation’s predominant port processing site, earning it the nickname “Porkopolis.” Today that’s celebrated in art.

Inside the ballpark: homage to the nation’s first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, and a view of the field.

The fans love the park’s pyrotechnics — fireworks for a homerun and flames of fire for striking out an opposing player.

Alas, the Reds — in the midst of a race to secure a playoff spot — saw their bullpen implode in a 7-5 loss to the Pirates. As Joe Posnanski wrote, relievers with the “alien-made-up-name” of Buck Farmer and “Irish Poet” Ian Gibaut each had blown saves.***

I took advantage of the trip to see other delights of the city before flying home on Saturday afternoon.

Here’s to living life large and exuberantly, no matter the age!

More to come …

DJB

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*Tom gives two-dollar bills as tips to the staff at the beer stand. They’ve given him the nickname “Two-Dollar Tom.”

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**I do have some rules for this quest. First, drive-by viewings don’t count. I have to actually see a game. I use to buy a hat of the local team to prove I’d been there, but it was suggested that I have enough caps — so that’s no longer necessary.

Finally, demolitions have wreaked havoc with these plans. I decided — in a totally arbitrary way since I am the commissioner and umpire for this game — that if I’ve seen a team in their home ballpark that has since been demolished, then it counts against my list.

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***It got worse the next day as the Reds blew a 9-0 lead to lose 13-12.

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Here is the list of teams/ballparks still to be visited. Let me know if you’d like to join me in seeing one or more of these ballparks.

• Arizona Diamondbacks – Chase Field
• Detroit Tigers – Comerica Park 
• Los Angeles Dodgers – Dodger Stadium 
• Miami Marlins – Marlins Park 
• New York Yankees – Yankee Stadium (I know—how can I not have made it to Yankee stadium yet?! Just goes to show I’ve never been a big Yankees fan.)
• Texas Rangers – Texas Stadium 
• Toronto Blue Jays – Rogers Centre

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Image by Ernest Roy from Pixabay