I can tell it’s my birthday thanks to Facebook:
I’m now at half-a-Kissinger and my body is showing the milage. A few months ago I bought a pack of three reading glasses so that I can read menus at restaurant, sheet music at choir and books that aren’t on my Kindle. My belts shrank too, somehow. According to the Social Security Administration, I can expect to live another 32 years. I’m well past middle-age.
Charlie Munger recently died and a friend posted some quotes on Facebook:
Wise people think in terms of personal opportunity costs.
It’s amazing how successful you can become if you just consistently avoid being stupid, versus trying to outsmart everybody else.
The nature of life is that you’re too soon old and too late smart. Anybody that helps you get smarter a little earlier enormously improves your life.
Early on, write your desired obituary – and then behave accordingly.
I don’t have any regrets about the big decisions in life. I won the demographic lottery and I’ve used that good luck to bless others. As the Psalmist wrote:
And he shall be like a tree planted by streams of water,
that bears its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither—
and in all that he does, he prospers.
—Psalm 1:3 (translated by Robert Alter)
My wife, my children and my family love me and I love them. I have a network of friends who support me. I can write these from the comfort of a beautiful home with a hot cup of well-roasted coffee at hand. What more could anyone ask?