If you can believe it, we’re less than six months away from a year that ends with a zero. The Twenties are almost here.
In semi-related news, I’m hitting a milestone birthday this week – also one that ends with a zero – so my mind has been extra caught up with the reflecting brought on by the end of a decade. My reflections weren’t exactly deep or life-changing, but I do have one interesting thought to report. Or perhaps not a thought, but a realization.
My realization: decades are too long.
I don’t mean that time doesn’t fly (things from 2010 still feel “new” to me) but rather, I mean that decades are too long to be useful as chapters of a person’s life. Take a person’s 20s, for example. A person’s identity and life stage at age 21 is probably drastically different from what they will be at 29.
The same applies to calendar decades. To me, the world in 2013 bears very little resemblance to the world in 2019. This decade (are we calling it “the teens?” How does this term still feel so weird after nine years?) feels less like a decade and more like two separate five-year spans. There was 2010-2014, and 2015-2019.
If, like me, you look back on your life and feel like it makes more sense to chop your story up into five-year segments, I’ve got good news for you: there’s a name for that.
A ten-year span is a decade; a five-year span is a LUSTRUM.
Sounds nice, right?
Lustrum. It sounds shiny, intriguing…and just a little bit risqué.
But most importantly, it’s a workable duration for the little life chunks. Five years covers a high school career. It comfortably encapsulates most university degrees. One study found that the average relationship of young adults lasts 4.2 years.
Bigger, societal things tend to happen within five years, too: elections, the census, the Olympics. Even the economy seems to like the lustrum, booming and busting approximately every five years.
So when you’re planning your future, or reflecting on your past, shorten your timeframe a bit. Find a comfortable chair, listen to Square Peg Round Hole’s 2016 ep “Five Years,” and start thinking in lustrums.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. It doesn’t feel like it “begins” in the traditional way a song might begin. It just kind of coalesces.
2. The combination of instruments – quiet woodwinds, ringing vibraphone, and the final distorted buzz that brings the track to a close – is perfect.
3. Square Peg Round Hole, as suggested by the name, is a band that isn’t afraid to be different. These are guys who once made a song by playing rocks. We should all be so confident and bold in our life choices. Especially those of us approaching an age that ends in a zero.
Recommended listening activity:
Finding a photo you took, an email you sent, or any other artifact from your life one lustrum ago.