Monday memory: sixty trips around the sun

There were a few times I didn't think I'd make it, but the Good Lord was willing and the creek didn't rise.

Birthday greetings from my wife (who also gave me two paper cards.)

A few random thoughts on turning the big 6-0 yesterday:

• When I turned 50, my then-fiance (now my wife), unbeknownst to this clueless guy (although I had some suspicions) organized a big party for me. Among the attendees, my mom and dad traveled up from Florida - now my dad is gone and my mom’s not much for traveling anymore (she doesn’t even drive at night now.) My stepdaughter from my first marriage brought her husband, but this time around were (rightly) preoccupied with their son’s 8th birthday party. Conversely, many of those friends who stopped by who knew me on a political basis dropped me like a bad habit when I wasn’t useful to them anymore - the point where I got out of politics. This time it was just dinner with family at a local restaurant.

• The last time I had a zero at the end, I was working part-time because I lost the job I moved down here for in the Great Recession. (That move was around my fortieth birthday, which was an experience of change in and of itself.) In the time since I got my livelihood back and then my job back. Maybe it had to do with getting into church?

• Tomorrow is never guaranteed, but I feel much less confident about making the next zero birthday than I did the last one. While the genes are somewhat on my side (both of my parents have lived into their eighties) if things skip a generation I may be cooked because my dad’s parents both died young - but my mom’s parents passed at 79 and 90. I guess when the number’s up I have to go. (The system said ‘I told you so.’)

• When I turned 50 I didn’t need a pillbox - I think all I took was Tylenol, some asthma/allergy meds, and an inhaler. Now I spend fifteen minutes every week divvying out pills for the next seven days and got mad yesterday morning because I fell into a door jamb trying not to step on the dog and got that telltale mark on my elbow when I scraped against it. Just can’t seem to avoid those. Used to see one doctor, now I see three.

• Somewhere during the last decade I slipped out of the generation the cool kids were trying to appeal to and now all I see are commercials for Big Pharma. Yet they still allocate the songs I grew up listening to, proving those are timeless. On the other hand, we have a music festival coming up in Ocean City this coming weekend and I don’t recognize 3/4 of the bands. Not that I’m going: ticket price for the first outdoor concert I went to in the summer of 1981, featuring REO Speedwagon and Foghat, was $15 - and that was a pricey ticket back then. Now it’s $200 for just one day, albeit about 15 bands on three stages instead of three on one.

• To the extent we disrespected our parents when we were young, we as a generation seem to be getting it back in spades now. I’m really starting to feel like a useless eater these days. Yet (in general) the kids aren’t leaving the parental nest, either. I can’t figure that one out: even if I didn’t get married (the first time) when I was 24, I was ready to go. Maybe it was being away from my parents in college that helped me, but neither of my brothers (who didn’t go away to school) lingered at home, either.

• If you take my life in thirds, in the first third the America changed because we went through a war, a big scandal, and a rough economy. In the second third we got our swagger back for a time, but then began to rest on our laurels until someone punched us in the nose. (Plus we discovered the World Wide Web.) But in the last third, despite the maturing of instant video communication, America has become more divided than united, less moored to our moral and spiritual base, and have developed the capability to supplant ourselves. Will the last act for me also be the last act for America? It’s a scary thought, but, as we were reminded in church yesterday, there is one truth and God is still in control.

• Finally, I’m just thankful for all my blessings, one of which is this Substack and the people who take the time to read it. Good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, I’ll be here until He says I’m done with it. Maybe I’ll get to another zero or two (or more) before that day comes.

In the meantime, though, you can Buy Me a Coffee, since I have a page there now.