It's my birthday. I’m 66 years old.
I kind of dread birthdays, not because they remind me that I’m getting older, but because the day is filled with distracting texts, emails and Facebook posts wishing me happy birthday. What a Scrooge I am!
This has gotten especially bad because our calendar apps give us yearly reminders. Enter someone’s birthday in your app and you’ll get annual reminders forever. Somehow the automated nature of this devalues the message. Heck, there’s probably an app that automates this so you don’t even have to go to the trouble of sending a text.
Back in the old days, when the Northside Sun was the pinnacle of social media, we published the birthdays of all our subscribers for that week in the Sun. It was quite popular. My how times have changed.
I think about my sweet mother, all of 5 feet one inches tall, carrying me around in the hottest part of the summer. I’m not sure I ever thanked her for that. I will definitely do so when I see her in heaven. Perhaps she can read my columns in heaven. Not really sure how all that works. Anyway, thank you Mom.
The hottest heat indexes are probably in June, but the hottest temperatures for the year, on average, are the last week in July and first week in August. I love early September. There's a slight decline in temperatures and you have the beautiful fall and Christmas season to look forward to. Then a brief, mild winter and a glorious spring. The Big Bake is farthest away.
This birthday has something unique to it. I have outlived my father. He died suddenly after jogging 29 years ago. I miss him so much. I was blessed with a wonderful father. He was my father, my best friend and my business partner rolled up into one. Coping with the deaths of my parents have been, by far, my most painful experiences in life.
There’s something else unique about this birthday. By this time next year, I’ll be getting regular monthly Social Security payments. For 50 years, they’ve been getting a big cut of my paycheck. It’s about time I get something back.
I suppose that means I’m over the hill and should retire, but I feel as energized as ever. The huge challenges of figuring out how to monetize quality local news has fired me up. I’m one of those people who thrives when challenged. It’s just the nature of my being.
It’s fun working when you should be retired. I feel like everything I’m doing is extra credit. In fact, I love my work. Being my own boss no doubt contributes to that. I have been so blessed to have avoided the workaday grind, tied to a desk.
I have been so blessed to be able to make a living reporting local news and events in the Northside Sun. I am eternally grateful to all the subscribers and advertisers who have made this possible. I am doing my very best to figure out how local publishers can survive in a time when they are closing right and left. It’s a challenge for the country and I promise to do my very best.
It is so joyful to meet someone in the grocery store and say, “You don’t know me but I have been reading your column for years and feel like I know you.” Yes!
So far, I have been blessed with excellent health. I really don’t feel any different than when I was 35. Last week I shot my best round of golf of my life (and not from the senior tees!).
I can still run fast on the tennis court. It’s just that the stakes are higher. Injuries happen quicker and take longer to heal. So I say “good shot” more often. My son Lawrence can now beat me at tennis, a generational change. But I can still win if I’m willing to injure myself.
One more year and my young Ruth will be out of college. That’s a weight off my shoulders. I feel like I have done my duty for God and children. I have done my best to raise another generation. I love my family.
I have a good marriage. I think I love Ginny more than the day we got engaged, although it is a deeper, richer love. Not quite as hormonal or intense. I think she loves me, or at least she professes to. A good marriage is two sinners refusing to give up on one another.
I am now old by any measure. I know my 90 year old friends are laughing at this. Indeed, one weird thing about being old is there are no old people any more. And young adults all look like Barbie dolls.
I know I won’t live forever, thank goodness. I am afraid of dying but not of death. In fact, I am excited about heaven. What an amazing adventure that will be. I can’t even imagine, but the Lord has promised me it will be awesome and I believe him.
I have been blessed with faith. If you have faith, you have everything. If there is one thing I recommend to everyone: Pray for faith. Never stop praying for it. This is the one thing the Lord will give you if you ask and it is the greatest gift of all.
If I could sit down with each of you, I could spend two hours describing my life experience and you would think I was the luckiest person ever born. Or I could spend two hours describing my life and you would think I was a modern day Job. It’s which events you choose to focus on. Life is a mix of joy and tragedy.
My favorite Bible verse is Romans 5:3: Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope will not be put to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
