YEP, LIFE IS GOOD

 I am 73.  Very happy to be 73.  I survived the Viet Nam era (though I did not go to Viet Nam in the Service).  I have been on the road for 55 years and have avoided serious collisions.  I have done the stupid things kids do...literally played in land fills, self-taught plumbing and electric without setting fire to my house. I tried sky diving once...but ONLY once. I rode bicycles where today I would be afraid of being hit by a car. I lived in the South Side of Chicago, now a very dangerous place for a white male.  I survived work.  I worked to live, not lived to work.  The expression, “if you love your job you will never work a day in your life.”  Not so much.  But I had a family to provide for; I then prepared vigorously for retirement, not with substantial wealth but a very comfortable retirement. Yes, life really is good.

I survived two marriages to decent women but with whom I had very little in common (though each lasted 17 years).  I survived a life-threatening heart problem. Two sons turned out to be rewards (one is deceased and I miss him) Otherwise, life is good!

Where did all the above land me?

I am still not wealthy but I have the best wife ever,  my age, similar values, whom I met on line 10 years ago and for whom I moved across the country.  I have a comfy co-op and three sweet cats.  Not happy with Long Island...expensive, corrupt, angry. I now have a beautiful old house in rural Maine to which I can escape and work on “DYI” projects. Life could not be better.

My wife and I enjoy a morning two cups of coffee in her “office” during which, over 90 minutes, we solve all the world’s problems and I discuss my current attempts at angering arrogant abusers of power, a never-ending supply of truly bad people.  We talk about family; we reminisce on life before we met each other and how both of us did really “make it” in the end.  She is an intelligent woman, likely a more perfect Libertarian than I (although I identify myself as “fiercely” Libertarian) A great way to start the next morning of a great life.

I am seriously pessimistic about the future of this country.  Uneducated, left-wing indoctrinated, narcissistic, professional victims and an unstable world would have me convinced that as a white, straight male I should be ashamed of myself and embarrassed about my meager wealth, all the while the champions of left-wing hatred...Cortez, Clinton, Sanders, Harris, apparently have nothing about which to be ashamed including the millions that last three have accumulated.  I must not defend myself with a gun (good luck with that) though all the above have armed guards.  Looking to the future, my lifestyle will be vilified while the wealthy left will continue to adore each other and pat themselves on the back for having destroyed this country’s values of independence and subjected the country to a world order that takes from the wealthy (except the American elite left) and gives to less wealthy countries and the lazy, entitled in our own country with no strings attached.  Still, CURRENT life is great.

Look to the past:  Medical procedures that have saved my life were not available during my youth.  In the 50’s not all people had the abundance of healthy food, clean water, individual transportation. A car might last 100,000 miles...might. We now can shop without leaving our house. We can talk to or even see via modern electronics, people all over the world. We can easily travel around the world in a fraction of the time it took in the 50’s. Automobiles are affordable for most and now will last 200,000 miles.  Yep, life was great then but people living in those years did not know it could be even better. Now, life really is great.

How lucky I am to live now.  My life spans truly golden years...an oasis in the 250 years of our democratic republic. I have learned from many mistakes.  I have very few friends; my wife is my “best friend” and I have one other but I place much energy into my private time and draw from (and give to others) not as an obligation but because I enjoy being “there” for them and having someone there for me.  I am not optimistic about what this country will look like 20 years from now.  When I had triple bypass surgery in 2017 my cardio-thoracic surgeon said I “bought” 20 years.  I won’t quibble over the length (I hope she underestimated that time) though it was Medicare that bought it for me.  2040 may the best time to leave this country to others and self-induced chaos.  The hatred, class envy, racial and gender divisions will have done irreparable damage by then and I am not eager to live in that era. But, for now, life really is great.

Over Christmas, I read a for-sale plaque in the mall, “I want both of us to live to 100 and I want to die one day before you.”  That is romance at 100 and if that is the timing for my wife and me, there will be nothing left to complain about.

Yep!  Life really is good.