Ira after 1000 non-stop crunches—4/5/2012
Although the age number sounds ancient and a tiny bit terrifying, I am thrilled beyond anything you can imagine that I have survived and lived well and happily for one more year. I remain grateful for so many parts of my life, and I am constantly reminded by less fortunate friends—and strangers read about in newspapers and seen on TV—how really crappy life CAN be and actually is for vast numbers of humans. Of course I have setbacks and disappointments, struggles, anxieties and fears, but they are in the past. I am looking forward.
The Buddhists say Life is Suffering. M.Scott Peck (who lived and worked just a few miles from me) says in his book,The Road Less Traveled (10 million sold), that Life is difficult. It is filled with problems and pain. It takes discipline to deal with them. It is only because of the problems that we grow mentally and physically. Many people attempt to avoid problems and suffering instead of dealing with them.
Somehow I have been able to be disciplined enough to wend my way through and around my problems. I have arrived at an age, when many of my contemporaries are resting and waiting for their end, even if their days are filled with minimal stress and many happy moments with family and friends. Some are unhealthy. Some are overweight. Some are flabby. I am not like that. I don’t know why. Clearly I have my neuroses, am obsessive about some things and driven to carry out others.
Most fortunately, my genes, my attitude, my diet and now my physical activities have brought me to this wonderful, but totally ridiculous, place, where I care about six-packs, tennis swings and low cholesterol. I want to be fully alive, and good health is the highest priority. I have been sick and confined to hospitals. But without health, you just can’t do many of life’s activities. If these words help guide you to a fuller, lengthier and satisfied life, I would love to hear about it. But I also do what I do for myself. I don’t know how I became who I am. But here I am, making the most of a blessed journey.
I hope you have enjoyed this day, my birthday. I just learned today that April 5th is also the birthday of Colin Powell, Booker T. Washington, Thomas Hobbes Gregory Peck, Bette Davis, Spencer Tracy and Melvyn Douglas.
