Glory Days
“Glory Rays”, Hillsborough, NC, August 2026
Hello Friend,
When I was growing up, I listened to a ton of music. Much of it influenced by my older siblings, because they had the money for the records and the tapes – and control of the radio dial. We had a lot of different tastes, though almost all of it was rock. I don’t remember my family arguing much about what band they liked more, or which singer was better than others. I think as long as it rocked, it was good.
As a family we moved around a lot, though, in the 1970’s we lived in Southern New Jersey for many years. So, of course we all became big Bruce Springsteen fans. Even though I’ve been listening to his music since I was a little kid, I’ve never gotten to see “The Boss” live. Drag.
I don’t listen to as much music now as I use to. Most of my time is spent with audiobooks or podcasts. My wife is really the musical one in the family. She’s always listening to everything from the 1950’s and 1960’s to the latest pop tunes on Spotify. The other night while we were in the kitchen together – she was cooking, I was cleaning – she had on a playlist from the 1980’s. After a few nostalgic tunes, on comes Bruce’s “Glory Days.” Not one of his bigger hits, though, as usual, it tells a great story in just a few lines of lyrics. His baseball buddy, a popular girl from high school, and even the narrator remembering their old “glory days.”
“A Little Glory on the Fence” Aiken, SC, September 2022
After dinner, sitting on our back deck, I kept thinking back to the song and when and if I had any glory days. Since I went to four high schools and three colleges, I never was one of the “popular kids” – just “the new kid”. I was athletic, but I swam and played volleyball – not the typical jock sports. I wasn’t one of the dark and mysterious kids, either. I was like almost everyone else, just a kid growing up. My work career has been alright, but again, no real glory days to look back on there, either.
As I get closer to my 60th birthday later this year, I wondered, did I miss my chance? At this point in life most of us see there is more of our life behind us, and not so much in front. Sitting and thinking about it, I realized, actually, I’m more interested in looking forward to possibilities than backwards on what’s been.
With my photography, I’ve been excited about the past few years. Even though I’ve been a photographer for more than 40 years, I’m looking forward to what new and interesting things I’ll learn to create with my camera. Now that I’m writing more consistently, I’m interested in how I’ll put my thoughts together, and if that will come to anything. Are there ways to put these older skills together with these new creative ones I am also developing? Or, as the doubts start to kick in, am I just getting “too old” to really get working on things like projects, presentations, articles, and books? If there really weren’t any “Glory Days” in my past, does that mean there aren’t any possible ones in the future for me?
“One Moment of Glory” Aiken, SC, August 2026
I recently learned about Aurthur C. Brooks, and read his book “Strength to Strength”. He opens it with a similar story to “Glory Days.” Brooks is on a flight, when he hears a gentleman behind him talking to his wife about how no one remembers who he is and all the great things he did in his life. How everything is in the past, and nothing to really look forward to. This man even laments to his wife that he would rather be dead than lose his relevance in the world. When the flight was over, Brooks said he looked back to see who this sad man was. Without naming him, Brooks was shocked that it was not only someone famous, but someone people really admired. Someone who had done a lot in his life. Someone whose glory days out ranked most other people’s that’s for sure.
This is exactly what struck Brooks, and worried him. He saw in himself this same “Stiver’s Curse”. He was someone who worked very hard, and built up an identity around all the things he had accomplished. Only to start questioning it all in his early 50’s. Were his glory days behind him? Were there younger, hungrier stivers doing his job better then he was? How long was it before he was sitting around telling boring stories of his glory days? Or worse, he’d be complaining to his wife he’d rather be dead then grow old and fade out?
Feeling that he was nearing the end of his career, but still seeing a lot of life ahead of him, Brooks really started to dive into the science of happiness and purpose. He thought, like almost everyone else, that as you age your skills and intelligence decline. We peak in our 30’s and 40’s, and it’s “downhill from there”. As we age, we are not as quick with our thinking. Our abstract reasoning falls off. Our ability to get stuff done fast and well, takes a little longer and might not be as good. This is what’s called “fluid intelligence”. When this starts to decline as early as our 30’s, we likely shrug and say, “That sucks, but that’s life.”
“Morning Train to Glory” Aiken, SC, September 2022
Though, that’s only one part of the story. Starting about our mid 20’s and increasing – really – is another type of intelligence. This is what’s known as our “crystallized intelligence”. This intelligence is where we store knowledge, expertise, pattern recognition. It helps us synthesize all the ideas we’ve accumulated over time to put them together in new and interesting ways. As Brooks says, “When you are young, you can generate lots of facts; when you are old, you know what they mean and how to use them.” Or in other words, this is where wisdom comes from.
As Brooks talks about it, one of his goals – and I think one of mine as well – is to help people recognize when it’s time to “jump from the first cure to the second.” When it’s time to step away from being the goal-oriented striver to be someone who can step back and see the bigger picture. Can pull in ideas that seem unconnected, and start connecting them.
Thank you and keep creating what you do.
Patrick Krohn
August 2026
P.S. Below is a graph showing the idea of the two different types of intelligence and how they change over time. Here’s a link if you would like to learn more about Arthur Brooks. And of course a live video of Bruce performing “Glory Days.”
“Just a Little Glory” Aiken, SC, August 2026
Here’s a crude example of crystallized intelligence: Seeing a connection between the lyrics of a song from 1984 and a book written in 2022, and how they both can be of service in exploring and tapping into becoming a better, more creative person. I’m sure I’m not the first, or only one, to make that connection, but that’s the idea. Two seemingly unrelated ideas, or things, that you put together in a new and interesting way. And aren’t we now getting into part of the definition of creativity? We take ideas and experiences we’ve had and put them together in new ways – and in ways only we can do them.
Only we can pull from our own experiences and our own knowledge to create our own works. That’s when we really start to find our vision, our voice and our purpose. Taking what we know and what we have lived through to see things, hear things, feel things only the way we can see them, hear them, feel them. To make things only the way we can make them – in our imagination and in the world. The glory days don’t need to be just behind us. They can be now. They can be in the future. And we can even ignore the whole idea of glory and live our days as we see fit – regardless of what others might think and say about our work and our lives.
Our creativity can take any form. Whatever calls to us. Whatever seems to give us purpose and meaning. Creativity can happen any time. Why wait? Why not start something now? Hopefully, your future self will look back at times like this as the start of your own “Glory Days.”
