I am pleased to announce that before this month ends, I will turn–or, more accurately, survive–75 years on Planet Earth, so let the dancing in the streets begin. My mother delivered me three quarters of a century ago after a terribly difficult birth, and I have managed to survive ever since, although it hasn’t always been easy.
I don’t feel especially ancient except when I get all that mail offering me cemetery plots or “free cremations.” Quite frankly, I actually appreciate the many things that accompany getting older, like the senior citizen discounts and people holding doors open for me. I also like Medicare. Sometimes, even when I am feeling perfectly healthy, I want to go to the doctor just so I can get some free medical attention.
Three quarters of a century is a good chunk of our country’s history. I was born after talking movies, electricity and the invention of the automobile, but before television, the computer, the cell phone and Facebook. I have lived during the terms of 14 presidents (no, I did not know Abe Lincoln), and I have been alive during six or more wars, depending upon what you define as a war.
I watched in wonder the first moon launch, and was devastated by the assassinations of President Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I witnessed the resistance to the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, the Civil Rights Movement, the marriage of gays, and most recently the MeToo Movement.
I survived measles and polio, both of which are virtually nonexistent in this country now, but have also seen the devastation of HIV. The world’s population has almost tripled in my lifetime. Global warming is heating up the planet despite the naysayers. The Earth continues to circle the sun; I have no idea why, but I am sure glad it does.
So much has happened during my lifetime that I wish all the change would just slow down for a minute and give me a chance to catch up, but I think that is just pie in the sky. (I have no idea why pie is in the sky, but I wish it would come on down here where I can eat it).
On the personal front, my 75 years have not been boring either, to say the least–polio, Dr. King, Wall Street, Fort Lee mayor, bribe attempt, mafia death threat, head of New Jersey State Energy, Bernie Madoff survivor, commercial real estate, move to Malibu, Task Force on Homelessness, columns and so much more. But none of this compares to being madly in love with Joan, my bride of 35 years and our two children, Kate and Isaac.
My life has been a bumpy, dramatic ride with lots of ups and downs, but for the most part, it’s been a wonderful ride, and I wouldn’t trade it for anybody else’s life.
So the question before me now is, what do I intend to do for the next 75 years? Confidentially, I need a bit of a rest, so going forward I hope to do as little as possible, which sounds like the noblest of goals to me.
People occasionally ask me if I fear losing “it,” whatever “it” means, but why would I fear losing something that I am certain I never had in the first place?
I do hope that whatever lies ahead, there is some chocolate in my future. I really like chocolate and truly appreciate what some innovative people have done with it.
I remember when M&M’s were just little chocolate candies, but then somebody came along and shoved a significant nut within. Now that is what I call meaningful progress, and I can only hope to see more of that kind of genius in the decades ahead.
But whatever happens to me in the next 75 years, rest assured I will keep you posted.