strangely refreshing

A fellow philosopher sent me this in an e-mail. Somehow I find it refreshing:

“Oh, one other thing I wanted to tell you. With that article getting published, my writing work is done. I know I’ve said ‘read this of mine,’ ‘read that of mine,’ ‘read my two books,’ but there’s a terminus to that. I’ve given you everything now, or a direct reference to it by title, that I’m ever going to write. I’m done and it’s a relief.”

He’s in his 50’s. Most of my “advice” posts have had the flavor of “finish your dissertation so that you can move on and write other things,” but this guy’s advice is far more radical! Finish your life’s work in writing so that you can stop writing altogether.

I can’t see that point from where I’m standing, so I’m not the one to ask. Not only can’t I see it, I’d never even dreamed of it. And I suppose that’s why the e-mail is refreshing. Never before has anyone sent me an article and called it their last one ever.

It’s kind of fun to think that maybe by, say, age 57, I’ll have said everything I will ever have to say. What about after that? Maybe do things at which I am very untalented, such as chess, drawing, and so forth.