Happy Birthday to me!

V-J Day, Victory over Japan was August 15th, "the day for mourning of war dead and praying for peace". I did not pay too much attention, but seem to remember that my mother told me that she went to the hospital on that day with what proved to be false labor -- Braxton Hicks contractions. The war in Europe had concluded when Nazi Germany signed its instrument of surrender on May 8, 1945. The Japanese refused to accept the Allies' demands for unconditional surrender and the Pacific War continued. Together with the United Kingdom and China, the United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945—the alternative being "prompt and utter destruction". (My much-later-to- be-teacher, Eugene List, famously entertained Truman, Churchill and Stalin at the Potsdam Conference!) On August 6 the U.S. dropped a uranium gun-type atomic bomb (Little Boy) on Hiroshima. American President Harry S. Truman called for Japan's surrender 16 hours later, warning them to "expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth." Three days later, on August 9, the U.S. dropped a plutonium implosion-type bomb (Fat Man) on the city of Nagasaki. Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects of the atomic bombings killed 90,000–146,000 people in Hiroshima and 39,000–80,000 in Nagasaki; roughly half of the deaths in each city occurred on the first day. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness and malnutrition. In both cities, most of the dead were civilians, although Hiroshima had a sizable military garrison. On August 15, just days after the bombing of Nagasaki and the Soviet Union's declaration of war, Japan announced its surrender to the Allies. On September 2, it signed the instrument of surrender, effectively ending World War II. The bombings' role in Japan's surrender and their ethical justification are still debated. By September 2nd, I would have celebrated my first fortnight in this weary, war torn world … it’s all ancient history (and continues to fester ... sort of?)

Semantics to the rescue

Semantics to the rescue! Three-score-and-ten looms large in measuring my small existential, blessed plot of the extant, giving rise to inspired flights of fancy as I approach its arrival. It is a certain memory -- reading that the latest thinking is that the blooming of the baby boomers demonstrates two new states of being (Early Old Age and Late Old Age!) – that makes me think back. I remember that as a young music student, I found a certain satisfaction in ‘knowing’ that Beethoven’s creative output could be pigeonholed into either the Early, Middle or Late periods. (for instance Op.1 Pno Trios, Op.2 Pno Sonatas, Op.18 String Quartets – Early, the Op.53 Waldstein and Op.57 Appassionata – Middle, the late quartets, Op 127, 130, 131, 132, 133 and Pno Sonatas Op 109, 110, 111 – Late). As time passed, and other of my own observations interrupted this tidiness, I came to believe that the concept of five periods could be used to organise Beethoven’s unbelievable and difficult to comprehend fecundity/development. I would argue that the big three periods were separated by stretches of experimentation and transition … So … where are we going here? In the direction of tossing out a new concept – assuming that one accepts the idea of Early Old Age and Late Old Age, how about something in between, a transition between the two. (am I channeling Bernie Sanders?) If Middle Old Age (it has a certain ring to it “the Middle Old Ages”?) is created, will that make it easier to ease on down the road into Early Old Age?