Last month I asked, “Starting today, what is one thing you could do to grow older and better?” Here is what I’ve discovered: We may not choose to grow older, but we can choose to keep getting better. Being with others helps make that possible.
For me, an art opening at the Boone County History & Culture Center was a good place to start — with the “others” in question being artists David Spear, Lisa Bartlett, and Jane Mudd.
If you do not know David, fix that. He has spent decades making art rooted in Missouri’s landscapes, history, and communities. His paintings hang in the Wabash Station, the Columbia Sports Fieldhouse, and Sophia’s and Addison’s restaurants. He painted a 250-foot mural in Salem. Pretty impressive.
Lisa Bartlett is a painter, assemblage sculptor, and owner of Artlandish Gallery — someone who has been adding to Columbia’s cultural life for most of a lifetime. Her work draws on old photographs, family stories, and the layers of history most of us walk past.
And Jane Mudd, a plein air painter and retired William Woods art professor, has been painting the Missouri River for 50 years. Her work can be found in Columbia Regional Airport, in fire stations, and at parks, among other spaces. Jane may be the best living portrait painter any of us will ever see.
At the opening, the room was filled with people who love this city, gathered around things made by people who love it at least as much.
Next up, the Columbia Chamber’s Business in Motion Expo was a good reminder that my professional community is still there — and still glad to see me (and vice versa). Something happens when you get into a room full of people you have not seen in a while. Conversations pick up mid-sentence, as though no time has passed. If you have been drifting — and most of us have, often more than we realize — find the next Chamber event and go, or attend your version of it.
For me, there was a fantastic outgrowth of that Business in Motion gathering. Seeing the right people led to the creation, in about 20 minutes, of a new biweekly event: the AI Business Breakfast. For free, local business leaders will get together at REDI to learn and share practical ways to use AI. And it all came about because people who already trusted each other were together. That is the formula.
Also on my docket that month was lunch at Balkan Treat Box in Webster Groves, part of my 2031 life project to road trip to the best restaurant in every state. Missouri has genuine contenders, and this is one. It offers Old-World dishes — cevapi, pide, spit-roasted döner — with a handmade copper wood-fired oven anchoring the center of the room. College friends Katie and Bill joined me, and it could not have been better. Old friends, good food.
Here’s the throughline: Every good thing that happened to me that month had other people at the center. The artists who keep making things. The Chamber crowd that picked right back up. Food and friends worth a road trip.
Growing older and better is not a solo project. The people around us are doing remarkable things, and most will never say so. They just keep showing up. We’d all do well to follow their example.
Last month’s question stands. Starting today, what is one thing you could do to grow older and better? Maybe this month, the answer starts with reaching out to someone.
