US
Some weeks ago I went shopping for a kid-friendly map of the United States, specifically for this space. It was not a simple search, basically I ended up looking for a stand-alone puzzle. Finally, the folks at Barnes and Noble came up with this one. which is more than adequate – 100 pieces.
(If you’re interested, the product is for sale online by Noljaplay of Brooklyn NY, distributed by Toysmith.)
Today, May 4, I’m 85. I won’t modify it by “years old” or “years young” or such. It is a marker on the road of life. My first grandparent to die was 85 when he passed. It was May, 1957. I was 17 and remember Grandpa Bernard well.
Today, lots of people can say to me “you’re just a kid”, but that number is decreasing. Age has its way of reminding all of us that there is a finish line. It also provides us with the experience of history lived, and perspectives that we wish we’d learned earlier on.
Years beget memories for all of us: I was 18 when I drove on one of the first stretches of Interstate Highway in the U.S., (I-94 between Jamestown and Valley City ND). Over the years I’ve been to 49 of the 50 states (sorry, Alaska) and 16 (of 194) countries. I grew up in a succession of tiny ND towns, and say my hometown is North Dakota. The remainder of my life, the United States of America. All of my life, planet earth.
You can assess how the artist decided to summarize your home state (I have no complaints about the rendition of my two: North Dakota and Minnesota). Really the U.S. 3 million or so square miles of geography are pretty magnificent. So it is for Canada, home of my dad’s ancestry, and where I’ve travelled several times. Mexico, like Alaska, is another I’ve missed for no particular reason.
If I were to distill my philosophy down to a single word, I’d most likely choose the concept “community”. Together we are everything. As individuals, regardless of perception of power and influence, we are really nothing. The whole is far more than just the sum of its parts….
In my view, we are all North Americans, part of a much larger entity, the planet on which we live with billions of others. Pick any place on the map above and below, and anyone and every one there depends on the rest of the nations and the world. At some earlier point in our nation’s history, perhaps go-it-alone individualism could be argued. No longer. There are no boundaries, and we are better off for that. We are interdependent.
“The World” as I recall seeing it on the campus of Clark University in Worcester MA June, 1972. If you look closely you’ll see son Tom, then 8, at the base, “holding up” the globe.
The odds are pretty strong that regardless of how I feel today my time as a live being is limited. I’ll keep trying to articulate “thoughts towards a better world” until it’s no longer possible.
Just a couple of days ago, Garrison Keillor’s “What I’ll Do For The Sake of Love” popped up on my screen, and is a good commentary to end this post.
Have a great day. We are in this together.
Timely and insightful piece, Dick, on being in the 80s. I know how you feel. When I project ten years down the road, I start singing (in my mind) the song Paul Anka wrote for Frank Sinatra. One of the lines echoes your thoughts and mine: “And now, the end is near and so I face the final curtain.” I’ve come to realize there IS a final curtain, but I hope you will keep doing your act until that curtain does ring down. My plans are to do that as long as I can continue with my blog, and my presentations for seniors on the recordings I played as a teenage DJ when in high school (and later, during those all-nighters on KSTP in the Twin Cities when I was a student at the U of M). We both are trying to care for our health and that helps. While it may delay, but not prevent, that “final curtain.”
Many thanks for the enlightening and inspiring work you. God bless you. Maybe we can continue doing what we love someday, on the other side.
Thank you, Dick, for an enjoyable read. I am one day older than you! It appears that we are on the same level of health and activity, and I hope to remain in my home for a few more years. It has been tough to discard items…when I reached 40 collecting antiques began…things the younger generations do not want. Same goes for hobby of painting porcelain – downsizing is difficult to start. Only one interest was a really good choice – small collection of canes!
Look forward to your words of wisdom! Lois
Happy birthday, 85. I’ll be 73 in a few days. We are indeed nearing the End of the Line. I agree with your conclusions about community but at the same time feel that in an expanding world population, we have less and less hope of protecting that concept. We have sunk already into a dangerous time of awakened tribalism and nationalism. The more there are of us, the more we bang up against each other and piss each other off. I’m glad to be climbing the train out.
I think our essential problem as humans is that we take ourselves too seriously. No other species makes such a fuss over their own or others’ actions or achievements. That I guess is the Ego. I think it hasn’t served us very well because it too often has overreached our undeveloped sense of conscience and surely the forgotten concept of humility.
My own little life, as I reflect upon it, has no importance in the grand scheme of things, and as a group we have failed miserably, overall. We did so many fantastic things. Always destroyed by the things that come out of an over-stroked Ego. Pardon my bitterness.
Happy Birthday Dick!
Keep on keeping on.
”Love Makes the World Go Round!” Happy Birthday Dick – and many many more🎉
I’m a day late this morning, but “Happy Birthday!”, Dick!