Fay Vincent is best known for having been The Commissioner of Baseball from 1989-1991. I find little to agree with Mr. Vincent politically and growing up in Ohio watching “The Big Red Machine” and Pete Rose, I felt that he should have shown some mercy and allowed Mr. Rose to be reinstated into baseball and voted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. A partner in a well-known Washington DC Law firm and specializing in entertainment law he hobed-knobed with celebrities and sports heroes making their celebrity his celebrity.
He recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal that OLD AGE IS LIKE A DEBENTURE — “we are like a 10-year unsecured bond that may be called in early and that uncertainty raises challenges about how older people should live out the rest of their lives”. He quotes Macbeth “Life is but a walking shadow…told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” How morbid and depressing. It reflects a humanistic fatalistic and materialistic philosophy that is completely opposite of how I am viewing my senior years.
In the end, he opines that even though he still embraces the classic virtues of “duty honor and country” and the Christian virtues of faith hope and charity, but that maybe he is approaching the “grouch phase’ of his life, and he should stop trying to instill his values in his younger progeny. “Tending my own little garden might keep me from looking over the fence at what others are doing”.
Who can forget Rodney Dangerfield reciting Dylan Thomas’s poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” in the movie BACK TO SCHOOL.
I am almost seventy-two. I have no idea when my time will come. I do know that I want to “die living” and not “live dying”. At his point in time that choice remains mine. Our lives are more like a trust contract than like a debenture, but I can see how a person with a more secularist or humanist philosophy can feel like Mr. Vincent does. The terms and conditions of the “Trust” are well defined. Love God and Glorify His name. Work hard. Love your family and friends—protect them when they need your protection and then teach them how to protect themselves. Realize that every person who has been given life is “entitled” with unique gifts and talents. Use those talents wisely to make good choices—and you will make good and bad choices throughout a lifetime, but don’t blame others for your bad choices—PS sometimes what looks like a bad choice, or a setback today is just a door opening to a better opportunity.
I have loved my life thus far and I thank God for my health and my family. I hope every person my age and above decides not to start tending “our own little gardens to keep from looking over the fence”. Our generation still has work to do. We have grandchildren to teach and many times we need them to teach us—I played my first video game last week with my granddaughter where I had the opportunity to teach her repeatedly how to be a good loser—I never won.
Next weekend we will go to Whidbey Island, and I will play Pirates with my grandsons. We will be great Pirate Warriors and build ships and fight enemies. I will again get to teach them that before a pirate can get a sword or a shield he must first tend to his heart. Great warriors need to be great leaders and follow the “voice within and pray”. Then they can carry their sword and lead men. Far after I am gone, I know they will remember our days on the beach fighting “scallywags” and just maybe when they themselves are in the military, or are running their own business, or up against “all odds” in the operating room or a courtroom they may recall about how to be a “great warrior” and follow their “voice within and pray”.
The virtues and values that were taught to our generation by our parents (the greatest generation), need to be retaught to our grandchildren. Our only hope for their futures is that we can have a new “great awakening”. Work hard—pray hard—fight hard.
So, if you are “old” like me you still have a job to do. We should always keep paying our dues. Your trust account will always be in the “red” —you always will have been given far more than you could ever pay back. But keep the trust payments up for as long as you can.
My sons cringe and smile when I tell them that there is still so much teaching to be done (sometimes they use the word indoctrination) and so little time. But “all things being equal” I will always have a job. For that, I am eternally grateful.
