Sixty Years Old and Just Beginning

At a conference last Saturday, I saw my friend, John standing at a booth talking with one of the conference sponsors. After we greeted one another, he turned to the woman at the booth, "Jim and I have been friends for forty-three years," he announced proudly. And a forty-three year friendship is something for us both to be proud of.

John lives in New England, but I see him here in Washington with some regularity. In this case, he was attending a conference at a hotel down the street and just dropped in to see what ours was about.

Usually we talk shop, but this time we had the opportunity to be more personal. He's about to turn sixty and feels as though he has finally, over the past thirty years, learned enough to make a meaningful mark on the way we do politics in this country--looking for common ground combined with having and showing genuine love and care for others. His experience indicates that it's a great way to turn adversaries into friends--friends with whom you may disagree on just about everything, but friends nonetheless.

The intriguing thing for this blog is that he's been experimenting and tinkering with his approach for thirty years. Now, confident in what he has learned, he's ready to expand his work in new ways. Trips to Europe, Africa, and Asia are already on his calendar and he anticipates that this phase of his career will be the most fruitful.

Oh, and he has no intention of ending that phase with retirement at age sixty-two or sixty-five or seventy or any other year in the near future. While he didn't say it, it's clear that he intends to die with his boots on.

And why not? Why waste all he's learned? Why quit when he's finally getting ready to peak? Why cut short sharing his discoveries with others, particularly those younger than he is?

Not all of us have jobs that can go on forever. Not all of us have jobs we wish would go on forever. But all of us have wisdom that it would be a shame to waste. All of us (with the exception of the professional athletes, circus performers, and dancers I suppose) still have the opportunity to peak.

The world around us has needs. We have skills. It's a perfect combination.