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He wandered the hallways of memories and dreams through endless factories filled with machinery and dust. He never belonged in these places; his role was fixing, making things run, teaching others, and going on his way. Sometimes the dreams were different, as a teacher, office worker, or manager, but the sense was the same – he did not quite fit; it was not home to him. He was there, but not there at the same time. The faces in his dreams were of long-forgotten people he met throughout his travels who had something to say to him but just beyond his hearing. He struggled to recall detail when he woke but knew well the feeling and the question that would start his day, “What is left undone?”

He understood that nearly everything he now restored or created would outlive him at his age. He considered this and realized he was not saddened to be in the fall of his life – quite the opposite. Instead, he was looking forward to the next adventure. Yet, he wanted to ensure that he didn’t look too far ahead and ignore the now. And so, he wondered. “What is left undone?”

The question took residence for a time as he inventoried his life, looking for the void that needed filling or the life experience that needed mending. Was that the message from his dust-filled dreams, he wondered? Was he looking for completeness with tidy, organized memories of life, or was there more to do, more to be? Finally, he concluded that life at any stage is incomplete – it was not meant to be otherwise. The adventure is now, will always be now, and life will always be unfinished.

Kevin Deeny