8 August

Looking Ahead On My Birthday: “How Terribly Strange To Be 70…”

by Jon Katz
How Strange to be 70

This morning, Maria greeted me with a bouquet of flowers (above) that she picked in the middle of the Full Moon night and in the dark while I was sleeping. The flowers are all from our own garden and she presented them to me as a Happy Birthday greeting this morning. I love having a pagan artist wife who walks and dances barefoot in the moonlight with her beloved dog Fate. Tomorrow, Maria is taking me to the Saratoga Racetrack and then to a play in Dorset, Vt.

Today is my 70th birthday, and my ex-wife Paula reminded me in a sweet message of the Paul Simon song “Old Friends,” a somewhat melancholy story of two old men sitting on a park bench along with the lyric, “How Terribly Strange To Be 70.”

It is a little strange to be 70, it wasn’t so long ago that I considered 70 to be inches from the grave, a benchmark of decaying old age.

Paul Simon turned 70 a couple of years ago, and he was not brooding on a park bench about the good old 60’s, but releasing a new double album and setting off on a 50-day, 31 city book tour.

Yesterday, I wrote about my freak- out over changing my modem for the first time in some years. A woman promptly posted a message on my blog comments saying “at our age,” such fear of technology is quite common. God, I dislike old talk. I wrote back to her, urging her to abandon what I call “old talk,” the debilitating and self-destructive language of lament that so often accompanies getting older.

I believe it actually kills people. So does talking about health care and medicine all day.

I told her that I had a near nervous break down when I threw my typewriter away and started writing on the first Apple Computer more than 30 years ago, I have used new technology for years to expand and prolong my work and writing career, and the new modem was a step forward, not a nostalgic dirge. It was my idea to get it so I could continue to expand my footprint on social media and new websites.

Technology and the passage of life are not my enemies. Fear is my enemy.

Getting old has nothing to do with my being crazy or afraid, I am, in fact, just beginning to be sane.

Like Paul Simon, age 70 is not a time of retrenchment or downsizing or nostalgic lament or old talk. I see the news media commentators frequently say that President Trump, at age 71, is simply too old to change, and I wish our thin-skinned President would do some tweeting about that.

Like him or not, he could be an exciting role model for the many people who think turning 70 means moving into a one-story trailer in Florida and waiting quietly to die. People thought he was too old to run, let alone win. People were wrong.

This is a time of great change for me, change is essential to a meaningful life. Stasis,the downsizing of the mind and expectations, is the first death, the death of the spirit. Old talk is the language of the hopeless and bereft.

At 70, I am in love for the first time in many years. I am working on my 26th book, taking thousands of photographs every year.  I have having sex more frequently and happily than ever in my life. I just got a new small dog for the first time.  My blog is growing rapidly and has millions of followers, young and old, and I have entered into a whole new direction for my life and my writing, I am surrounded by an Army Of Good, something that never once even occurred to me until my 70th year.

My work with refugees and the Mansion residents have given me a powerful and very new way to use my writing and my blog.  I welcome Ali and the RISSE soccer team into my life with great joy and gratitude.

This week, I wrote a check that paid off the very final debt from our bankruptcy a few years ago, and for perhaps the first time in my life, I am debt free, other than our mortgage, we owe nothing to anyone. What a light feeling that is.

For me, growing older is not a time to look back and think of all the things I used to do, and of how much better the old days were. It is a time to think of all the things i am doing now, and to look ahead at all the things I plan to do. I will die when my time comes, but so will you, and everyone else who reads these words. They call if life.

My goal in life is to make my heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match my nature with Nature.

I don’t pay all that much attention to birthdays, but I suppose one’s life is a thing to celebrate. I made it to this farm, I throw my arms open to the next chapter, to open, open, open to the mystery of my own self.

19 Comments

  1. Happy birthday, Jon! Wishing you a great day & many more to come. Thanks for turning on the comments to your blog posts. I’ve wanted to comment many times, but I’m not much for FB.

  2. Happy Birthday! The flowers Maria picked for you are so pretty and symbolic of the life you two now share. I’m so very happy for you both. I’m on my own journey and your words console me. Enjoy your day. Sounds like Maria has some fun things planned.

  3. Happy Birthday Jon! May you continue to enjoy life surrounded by people and animals you love. Enjoy beautiful Saratoga?

  4. Happy Birthday Jon!! And many happy returns.

    It makes me cringe when people refer to themselves or me as being old (And the folks who have said this are 10 – 20 years older than I am.) I don’t see myself as being old, or them for that matter. Older yes (and hopefully getting wiser), but still able to contribute, to be involved, to help others and to keep moving as long as we can.

    Enjoy your day.

  5. It’s interesting that three of the last four Presidents were born in 1946 (Clinton, George W Bush and now Trump). In Chinese Astrology, that is Year of the Fire Dog. I was also born in 1946, but am not a “Leo” like Bush, Clinton and you. Leos are often leaders, but have big egos. Trump is a Gemini which is noted for changeability and the fact he’s a “Dog” suggests a quick temper with high penchant and demand for loyalty.
    To me, this is far more fascinating stuff than whining about age and illness.
    I am “old,” but like you, don’t enjoy the usual associations with it. It’s important to observe and learn something new everyday.
    To quote Paul Simon, “When I think back on all the crap I learned in High School, it’s a wonder I can think at all.”
    Yes, give us the Kodakrome — or these days, digital cameras.
    Happy picture-taking.

  6. Happy Birthday Jon…hope you win big $$$$ at the track tomorrow…….best wishes to you and Maria !

  7. Congratulations, you dear, dear man. From one who cannot wait to read your AM blog every day!
    linda

  8. Wishing you a very Happy Birthday, Jon. Enjoy your day at the track with Maria tomorrow. Hope you pick a winner!

  9. Thank you John for this post and really your blog. I love reading about your life on the farm and your work. I couldn’t agree more with your views on getting older. Happy Birthday!

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