* And here I go again…

Here I am. Again. A whole new decade of my life. My 7th, though I’ve hardly begun this

new one and don’t remember very much of the first. So I’d be a lot younger if this was only my 5th. But it’s not. Which is OK.

Born in the last part of the 1950s, I’ve lived through the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, ’00s,  and more than halfway through the ’10s. Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Clinton, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, Obama and an embarrassment whose name I hope to have forgotten long before I move on!

The Viet Nam War, the Cold War, Invasions of Bay of Pigs, Grenada and Panama, the Gulf War, Bosnian and Kosovo Wars, the War on Terror, the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and

the War on ISIL. Feels like we’ve been in wars most of the time since I was born. Has it?                                                  The Space Race, the Green Revolution, Small is Beautiful and Appropriate Technology, Saving the Earth, the Whales, the Seals, the Forests and now of all things America First.

Born and lived for just 3 years in Minnesota, then Wisconsin

for 5, then off to Madagascar for 5, back to Minnesota for 1, back to Madagascar for another 4 (high school), then college, university (and marriage) in Minnesota during the next 6 years, then back to Madagascar with my lovely frau for 9 of the next 13 years.

And so here I am again at the beginning of another new decade. Somehow this feels a bit different. Maybe one’s decades get bigger as you grow older? Or you have more to remember so the bag of memories keeps getting larger? And certainly part of it is, in part due to one’s age, in part due to what has happened and is happening around you, the end of your life no longer seems so far away. At age 50, there was at least a chance I might live to 100. But now to 120? Not so much.

So are there regrets? Yes, some. But I’m working to spend less time fussing over them as life is life after all. Has there been joy? An enormous amount of it, much of it ongoing. And sorrows? Yes, at times overwhelmingly so. But then there have been joys again. And blessings! Many many of them.

Have I achieved everything I was hoping for as a youth? Part of the reality (and perhaps helpfulness in this case) of getting older is that I can’t remember much of what those things were? But, yes, I have been able to achieve some of the things I do remember. And have there been unexpected twists and turns? Yes, more than I actually care for. But I guess the journey hasn’t been boring anyway!

So 60s, here I am, bring it on. And here I go again! With a little help from my friends!