60 Years on Earth

The official moment I declared that I have been on planet Earth for 60 years is Dec 17, 2011 at 5:26 PM. It did NOT sneak up on me. I had been thinking about my 60th for 12 months. I had a party Dec 17, 2010 to mark the first day of my 60th year and we partied on 12/17/11 to celebrate the beginning of the rest of my life. If you had known me for the past 35 years, you would question why celebrating my birthday has all of a sudden become important. Why is this particular milestone different?


This is the official moment when I cross the line from middle age to senior status. AARP moved that right of passage to 50 years old awhile back, but I'm guessing their mouths were watering looking at the potential huge membership of people in my generation and they couldn't wait to welcome us into senior-dom. Greedy buggers!

This is a great opportunity for a Robby segue. Greed and fear are the driving emotions of humans in my lifetime (probably been that way forever). Fantasy and reality also occupy a huge space in our psychology and emotions. Our being-ness is a complex system of memories, current conditions, genetics, and decisions. I decided to pry open my own time capsule, borrowing an idea from Forrest Gump. The snapshots here are part of the timeline of my existence. There is no question that "life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get."


As a kid in the 1950's in NY, my world revolved around sports. Mickey Mantle was my idol. Negative family dynamics were buried under my total immersion in baseball, basketball, football and hockey. In bed after lights out, I listened to the Knicks and Rangers on my transistor radio under the covers. I spent countless hours in our Den watching all 154 Yankee baseball games on our Sylvania black and white TV.

In the 1960's, my family issues continued, but I had a great friend at school, David. He and I made our way through Junior High and High School, dominating all sports and eventually heading off to Penn and Princeton. During the first 4 months of college, American troops crossed the boarder into Cambodia and news of the horrific events occurring in villages across Vietnam appeared on the evening news. Protests boiled on college campuses as 18-25 year olds were inspired by the lyrics of Bob Dylan and the Beatles to NOT accept the status quo.

Of course there were other distractions. I was mesmerized by the Hollywood fantasy exemplified on the silver screen by my favorite Raquel Welch. I met and fell in love with a real life beauty, my college girlfriend/cheerleader Nancy. She became my first love and heartbreak. It took too many years to recover. The rest of the 1970's were filled with coaching, teaching, and exploring the highways of the USA, and ended with me moving to Bezerkeley. 

The internal changes that brought about that transition were only realized through hours and months of therapy and a healthier lifestyle in the 1980's. No piece about my life would be complete without my taking a moment to mention my angel, my older sister Lauren. She left me seeking deeper meaning in life and wondering, "What's it all about Alfie?"


My son was born in 1986 and I found myself being a philosophical Dad. We watched parts of the Never Ending Story ever morning. It depicted a world being torn apart by evil, but emphasized the power of a small boy to find the confidence necessary to save the goodness. 

By then I had Co-Founded Hospice of Central Az and had Directed Special Olympics in Santa Cruz. Filled with the satisfaction of these good works, I set about the business of trying to make a living as a self-employed man. Although that taught me a lot, it never worked out financially. In the 1990's, I spent all my time getting in and getting out of businesses and relationships. Transitions became the signature of my journey. Fortunately I maintained my connection to truth and stayed focused on being a Dad no matter what else was shaking my reality.

In the new millenium, Americans were brought to their collective knees when 2 planes hit and took down the twin towers, claiming 3,000 innocent souls, and throwing a nation into panic and anger. These are not a good mix of human emotions and they blinded a country, making its citizens vulnerable to the twisted manipulation of the evil Dick Cheney. To puff his chest and line the pockets of his cronies at Halliburton, he lead us with lies into a war we didn't need to fight in Iraq. 

That war ended the day before my 60th birthday, in a year when humans once again found their voice. In December 2011, Time magazine named its "Man of the Year = The Protestor". This honors the courage of regular humans, mostly in the Arab world, willing to stand up and demand a change of leadership in their countries. In America the "Occupy" copycats in cities across the land, inspired by the original "Occupy Wall Street" gang had a harder time with their message and demands. It is much more complicated and harder to define what change is needed in a "free" country being run by lobbyists, financial institutions, and corrupt politicians.

It is not as simple as throwing out the long standing Dictator. Its about changing a system that was put in place gradually since Ronald Reagan. "Money gone wild" was then turned loose during the first decade of the 2000's by the Bush administration. Amongst a laundry list of bankrupting ideas, regulations were turned off and the citizens economy was laid to waste by lending cheap money to humans who could not really afford to buy houses, cars, and products on cascading credit contracts.

Where does Earth and its humans go from here? What will happen during my 60's and how will "things" be at the celebration of my 70th birthday.  Time will tell, but I have to keep reminding myself that although I have a pretty good idea about the humans I'm sharing this ride with through space and time, hope springs eternal. The ultimate battle that humans need to win in order to overcome the challenges confronting us is exemplified by these great words from Forrest, very simple man: "Stupid is as stupid does."