Today (August 15, 2023) is my 85th birthday. That being so, I am sharing personal reflections on this milestone day.
I am
truly grateful to still be alive and “sound in mind and body.” Many don’t live this long. Three
of my closest lifetime friends have been gone for years now: Bobby Pinkerton (1937~2008),
Clyde Tilley (1935~2013), and Joe Wolven (1939~2015). I still miss them.
Although
I am happy to say I have no illness of any kind, I am experiencing reduced
activity, and especially markedly reduced travel, because of the decrease in
physical energy/stamina.
At this
point, I am not planning to go with June to attend our beloved grandson David’s
wedding in Georgia the first of next month, and I will also likely not make the
trip to south Missouri later in September for the burial of June’s only
brother, who passed away early this month at the age of 88.
Thankfully,
modern technology makes significant connectedness possible from the comfort of
one’s own home—and for introverts such as I, being home, even home alone, is
often more enjoyable than being in a crowd of people.
I can
honestly say that overall, I have had a wonderful life during these 85 years. Three
years ago, I published a brief book for my children and grandchildren with the
subtitle The Story of My Life from Birth until My 82nd Birthday
(1938~2020). The book’s title is A Wonderful Life.
As I
wrote on the first page, that title “is not an evaluation I have heard from
others. In fact, some may well think my life has not been particularly
wonderful—and that’s all right.” The point is that I believe that I have had a
wonderful life, and I am genuinely grateful for how my life has been graced.
Tomorrow
and in the following weeks, I will continue revising and updating that book
with the goal of publishing a new edition of it, with numbers in the subtitle changed
to 85th and 2023, before the end of the year.
However,
for as long as possible I want to continue focusing on the present and the future
rather than the past. I plan to keep reading, thinking, and writing blog
articles (and perhaps an occasional book review).
I want
my grandchildren, and their children, to know something about my life story,
but I am even more interested in trying to share with them knowledge and,
hopefully, wisdom about the world as it is now and is likely to become.
I deeply
desire to leave a meaningful legacy to my descendants, but not a legacy of material things or of
things past. I hope to leave them a legacy that will encourage them to think
critically, meaningfully, and creatively. I also want to motivate them to think
deeply about the meaning of life.
To that
end, last month I wrote a letter to my great-grandson on his first birthday,
asking his parents to keep it for him to read years from now. I decided then that
for as long as possible I will write a thoughtful letter to each of my family
members on their birthday.
Yesterday
I wrote a letter to my youngest grandson on his 16th birthday. And
today I will finish writing a letter to my oldest son, whose birth on August 15
was the best birthday present I ever received.
Looking
forward, I want to do all I can to help my children/grandchildren, and as many
other people as possible, to think well and to choose wisely, in order that
they, too, will have as wonderful a life as possible—and a life that will make
a positive contribution to peace and justice in the world.
In closing, I am sharing this little poem I have
written for today:
I’m eighty-five and still alive.
The good old days have parted ways,
but days are new and joyful too.
So, I’ll go on ‘til time is gone
with gratitude my attitude
and faith in God until the sod
will cover me. And then I’ll see
a blissful state, my lasting fate.
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