Reaching Two-thirds of a Century!

I’m on the cusp of turning 67. Since I’ll be spending my birthday in Slovenia, we went to NYC yesterday to have a picnic celebration with our older son and family on the Hudson in lower Manhattan. It was wonderful, with food, wine, and a delicious lemon meringue pie. We tossed the football and enjoyed the beautiful weather and setting.  Later that evening we had dinner with our younger son and family at a marina-side restaurant, complete with Key Lime pie and candle. My 20-month old grandson surprised us by quietly singing Happy Birthday with the group – his first time singing it.

At one point during our afternoon picnic, my 11 year grandson stood up and offered a toast. He said some very nice things about me and my impact on him and our family. He then congratulated me on reaching 2/3 of a century! I was touched by his words, and impressed that he made the connection of my age to the century mark. I exclaimed, “I hope I make the next third of a century.”

I had read Ken Cutler’s excellent piece yesterday morning, so the concept of time was on my mind. In his post, Ken told the story of a math teacher explaining relative ages – how the younger we are, each year is a more significant fraction of our entire life. At 67, one year is only 1.5% of my entire life, But putting my age in context of a century was a nice counterpoint, and makes me hope there are many more happy and healthy years left! Any way, it feels good to be 0.666666667 of a centenarian.