My Second Saturn Return

Saturn takes approximately 29.4 years to orbit the sun. 

Astrologers believe that when Saturn returns to its position at the time you were born, you reach a new stage of life. As one astrologer explained it to my friend ZW, when Saturn returns, it is like entering a narrow door, and you can only carry so many things with you. The metaphor indicates a time of change from one stage to another, with significant consequences.

I do not really believe in astrology. I guess I am agnostic, or better yet ignorant. I am agnostic out of ignorance. Since I do not see principles of astrology come up in scientific discussions, I suspect that they are not true. But idea of dividing your life up into thirds, where the transition from one interval to the other involves significant changes resonates deeply with me.

I was born June 16, 1963. 

Thirty years later in 1993, I got my first academic job at Cornell University. My daughters were born just a few years before that. So my first Saturn return and the years leading up to it were some of the most significant years of my life. They were the period when I matured from being a perpetual student to being a salaried professional. I transitioned from taking care of myself to taking care of others. I had to learn how to function in an academic environment, so that I could provide for my family. 

What about my second Saturn return? 

By my informal calculation, my second Saturn return was around 2022. And just before that time, up until now, major changes have been taking place in my life. I am morphing into a new person, completely different from past versions. My purpose now is to enter this new stage which should last another three decades until the end of my life.

Perhaps most importantly, my children have grown up, and I am no longer responsible for their day-to-day well-being. This gives me a completely different perspective on life, in particular on my job. If I continue to work, it is not because I need to support my children anymore.  If I stay at my job, it is because I like it and find it fulfilling. I need to articulate to myself whether I want to stay in my current job, and for how long. 

Retirement at 65 is an easy option, just around the corner. Then I could apply for Medicare, get a university retirement package, and do what I want with the rest of my life. Whatever actual course I choose, I will be gradually navigating away from academics, toward a life spent seeing the world, enjoying my family and focusing on my own intellectual research projects, instead of jostling around in the day-to-day tumult of a university department.

My research profile is also currently undergoing a major shift. For the past three decades, since 1996 just after the first Saturn return, I have been deeply involved in Khoisan linguistics, spanning three different countries (Botswana, Namibia and South Africa). All of that work is coming to a close now. The academic year 2023-2024 has been particularly important in this regard. I am getting ready to enter a new phase of research, heading back to my roots in West Africa.

At one point, I had quite an extensive library that I built up from high school through most of my professional career. I had nearly complete sets of several major journals, including Language and Linguistic Inquiry, and a fairly comprehensive collection of issues of Syntax and Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. I had all my graduate and undergraduate textbooks. I also had quite an extensive collection of descriptive grammars and various series of monographs (MIT Press, Oxford University Press, etc.). I had hundreds of children’s books that my wife and I used to read to our children, and mountains of fiction of various genres. I would estimate the size of my library to have been in the thousands, at least 5,000 volumes maybe twice that. It filled an entire wall of our apartment, overflowing to all corners of the apartment.

Starting from around 2018, I gave away every single book I owned. That was an emotionally difficult process in itself, filled with much soul searching. I gave them to students, to colleagues, to used bookstores and to libraries. I threw away quite a few old ones, including most of the journals. All the journals are online now anyway. 

In a parallel effort, I have also given away all my worldly possessions. Leaving NYC for my sabbatical in 2023, I gave away everything, including all of my furniture. And leaving Botswana now in 2024, I have given away over a decade of accumulated possessions. Now, I am only left with the clothes in my suitcase, and my toothbrush. That’s it. To be rid of all these physical objects is mentally liberating. I see now that all this was in the service of preparing myself for the next stage of life.

In this reduced material state, I pass through a portal and look forward to finding out what lies on the other side.