This morning I figured out I was exactly two
years, 5 days and 16 hours away from 70. Which might seem old but to lessen the impact of this age thing I've decided to start thinking
of age as just an generic marker. For example if your
two years five days and 16 hours from 70 and in good health your probably
living a youthful existence but while a person in bad health is old, so who
cares about the age number. You see I've given this age thing a lot of thought
ever since, Dad at 39, died of a blocked heart artery while taking a shower in the
next room from me where I was watching TV, so there you have it. That was
when I was 13, but my know-it -all sister says 14, whatever, what’s
important is that is the day I decided to pack as many experiences as possible
into my life, just in case my fate was the same as Dads.
Staring out by ditching the bus and instead hitch hiking
the 35 miles to school, skipping school and going on
mini adventures around town and in the outdoors by our house, spending the summers sailing on the Great Lakes on a big
sailboat, winters, skiing and then after getting out of high school (I did graduate) drove my
1959 VW to Aspen and spent my time ski bumming, then there were several
failed attempts at college (just took too much time), a year in Vietnam, off
road motorcycles, my long fling in the fast paced, newly evolving plastic
business ("one word, plastics my boy") and two ex wives, a .com start
up that went bust but evolved into a sales rep business. It was about this same
time I also picked up an ASA degree and finished off a 10 year stint at single
parenthood. My freedom back I returned to Vietnam, 32 years after my first
visit when a two week visit turned into a two month stay. Twelve years have passed
since and time has brought a lot of changes in the world, Vietnam and Doug.
Out of kindness to my reader I'll skip Doug's
view of the changes in the world and Vietnam and stick to youthful Doug
approaching the generic marker of 70. As you may have guessed I'm the type of
guy that has put a lot of faith in leeway pulling me through some good and bad times but
as time goes on I’m finding leeway isn’t what it used to be. For example, at 20 when
I got drunk, fell down the stairs maybe I would end up stumping around with a
cast for a few months, now if got into the same liquored up state I would be
lucky to make it to the stairs. Anyway, hope you get where I'm going.
Also, I'm finding out that now sickness is not such a big concern in it's self because it has mostly been replaced by having a condition. It has been my
experience that conditions aren’t normally medicated a way, like the dose of
the clap my buddy was treated for back in the day. Bad example, how about
chicken pox?
Another recent example of the condition thing is my stomach problem I
had in Saigon that the Columbia Asia clinic diagnosed as a arterial blockage to the heart
(just like dad), not stomach gas but a condition, though unlike Dad I would
survive but the condition will always be part of my life.
Then there is that money thing, back in the day I never took money
seriously but my ex did and now the aging Doug realizes that he should have
been paying closer attention. While thinking “why is it I'm always the last to
know these things”. Then there was that great plan that corporations pushed through which resulted in the
closing out of my retirement plan and allowing it to be invested on Wall Street in a
401 k and we all know how that worked out.
Two years, 5 days and 16 hours away from a
youthful, generic 70 puts me way ahead of my dad, which is a very good thing. Then there is my condition but I
still ran/walked 15 miles this week as I do most weeks. with no ill effects. Money, yup a lot harder to come by now but with
a bit of finagling I’ll still be able to spend the winter in Asia bumming around no matter how Wall Street conspires against me.
Thanks for listening.
.
