65

Today is my sixty-fifth birthday. By all accounts this is a real milestone. I get to trade Obamacare for Medicare. I have my little Medicare card in my wallet. Not too impressive. It’s made of paper. I get mail every day reminding me it doesn’t pay for everything and that I really need a supplement.

Many of the clichés about aging turn out to be true: If I would have known I would live this long I would have taken better care of myself. Sixty-five doesn’t seem nearly as old when you’re sixty-five as when you’re twenty-five or forty-five for that matter. I am a much firmer believer that we need to respect the elderly and love to babble on about the “good old days.”

It will be a great day. My granddaughter is cooking for me. She is a great cook. The whole family will be there. The Cajuns and Gators are both playing for conference championships. I may have to  miss my traditional nap.

I really have had a great life so far. I spent eleven years in the Navy part of it working for the National Security Agency as an electronic spy and part as a paralegal. I got to finish college in the Navy. I got to go to Law School in Florida. Go Gators. I have been able to practice law on my own for many years.

Many of the things I’m proudest of I didn’t achieve. They were given to me. I have been married to a great woman for forty-four years. I attribute this to her patience and not to any good deeds on my part. I have a beautiful family. I had a very small part in producing that and the small part I played was fun.

I belong to a great church which I really enjoy. It isn’t great because of me.

I have been blessed to be involved in satisfying ministry, but all I had to do was show up.

There are still things I would like to do. They don’t involve quiet retirement or exotic trips. They mostly involve doing things with and for the ones I love.  There is much I could have done better. There are, I believe, still things my Lord wants me to do. There are still smiles to see and hugs to share.

But today I think I’ll just eat, watch basketball, enjoy family, remember and be very, very thankful.