These are hard times for people my age. My friends are fired from long-time jobs by bosses seeking to maximize profit. Their houses are underwater in debt. Pensions are threatened by the GOP, corporations, and Democrats. Health care is a myth. The world is supposed to end in 2012 and many people are anticipating the apocalypse with expectation of relief, however good news does occur from time to time.
My boss Manny is going on vacation for three weeks. He needs the rest.
A good friend, Ralph, informed me that he had just become a grandfather at 48. His son is serving under the flag. 26 and back from his 3rd tour overseas with the military. Ralph’s father is 70. The great-grandmother is 90. They hail from Martha’s Vinyard. The wheel remains unbroken.
My family is intact after the passage of my father last year. We speak to each other without too much rancor. The Bruins won the Stanley Cup and I have been appointed the writer-in-residence of a foreign embassy in Europe. I’m quitting my job on 47th Street to write a book about free love in a Utopian commune in Northern New England set in the 1840s. Room and board and a small stipend. My commute to Thailand has been shortened from 26 hours to 11 hours. I will see my kids more often.
“You are entering a time of perfection,” a friend said upon hearing the news.
It’s been 10 years since I’ve been in Europe.
TRANS-EUROPE EXPRESS.
I can’t wait to see the Alps.
Life is good.
Even at 59, because family and friends are more important than money.
They are the chain of life.
Past, present, and future.