After seeing the film "Julie and Julia" I began to think about all the people I know who have leapt into new fields, like Julia Childs, perhaps "a tiny bit" later in their lives. A favorite example of mine is an artist friend who lives in Birmingham, Alabama. Diane Shepherd and I didn't launch our creative lives until our children left home. Just a few years ago, I was in town for Alabama Bound and visited my old friend. Diane said, "Think these are any good?" With that, bunches of gorgeous watercolors tumbled from her closet! Diane needed encouragement and she certainly got some from me. She's truly amazing and many, many more people now know that, too. I have several of her lovely works hanging in my home.
Another example is Jerry Lee Davis. This fabulous man simply quit his job at Co-Cola in June of this year and moved to Los Angeles to pursue his writing career. Another friend, J. Kershaw Cooper quit his lawyering and jumped in feet first to writing. He's doing super with a newspaper column and numerous books. Jackie White hung up her law enforcement uniform and turned on her computer, too. How many books, Jackie? Are you at eight now? I think so.
I also want to mention my friends Marilynn Winston Ph.D. and Susanne Katz who have published "A Woman's Guide to Managing a Mid-life Divorce", AND Ed Putnam whose page-turning novel about a championship Cobb County Georgia highshool baseball team will be out in a few months, AND Frank Cox who has penned his incredible story of serving as a Marine in Vietnam. We're looking for that, I believe, after the first of the year.
George Elliott is one last fellow who springs to mind. George is a FABULOUS photographer. Come to our house if you don't believe me. His website is CrazyStarfish.
These are but a few of the people I admire in the arts, all people who've stepped boldly into new careers because they listened to their creative spirits.
The point is we need to pursue our passions, age matters not.