Surviving, Arriving

WHEN I was in my twenties, a dear friend, a lady who would now be 112, told me that one's health in later life depends much upon how well one treat's one's body when young.I arrive at my 65th birthday glad that I have exercised my entire life, grateful to still be exercising, hopeful of continuing to do so for a while longer. In the nineteen sixties I predicted that by now I would have the choice of living on Mars, the moon, beneath the ocean, or in Earth orbit, that disease, hunger, and war would be eliminated - i was a most optimistic little kid, a fan of optimistic, utopian science fiction. On a Bonanza rerun a lady tells Little Joe that her filed hand has been injured. He asks her whether the injury is serious. She replies that its a pulled muscle, but that the man is sixty four, and at sixty four, well, everything is serious. Boy, howdy. I thought my left arm, the victim of over exercise, would have been healed a week ago. i haven't ridden my beloved stationary bicycle in two weeks, at least not the upper body arm attachment part. I never imagined i would celebrate my sixty fifth birthday in the midst of a deadly viral pandemic. Only the good science fiction scenarios die young. I hope to live long enough to get a reliable idea of whether humanity survives climate change, though I doubt I will; it promises to be a struggle lasting at least another fifty years. I had hoped to witness the first human contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life. I must evidently console myself that we have discovered thousands of planets orbiting other starts, and that that in and of itself is cause for optimism. I think most people of my generation would agree that it has been a long strange trip indeed, or perhaps a rapidly passing trip filled with grand adventures. As Bertolt Brecht wrote: 'In the earthquakes to come it is to be hoped i shan't allow bitterness to quench my cigar's glow". And I don't think i shall. We baby boomers are an interesting lot, with a mixed bag of accomplishments and failures, but, overall, we have had much for which to be thankful.