POEM - Turning 50

50 may be the new 40
But 40’s not a half century;

I was born in an analog age
When writers wrote on typewriters
Vinyl records spun on turntables
And family photos, like TV, were in black & white;

Eisenhower was President
The world was different
Not necessarily better, just different
We worried about the Soviet Union
And Communist China;

I don’t have a clear memory of the day JFK was killed
Though I do remember when Martin Luther King was shot
And RFK went down in LA
I remember the Watts riots
TV images of Newark and Detroit in flames
No adult I knew could explain why these events
Happened;

I watched Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon
And the Vietnam War unfold on our TV
I remember the Oil Embargo of ‘73
Nixon & Watergate
The Vice President with the funny name – Spiro Agnew;

I’ve now lived long enough to know
That the sum of what I know
Is less than the sum of what I don’t
And that I’ll never know all I’d like to;

So what else have I learned in 50 years?
Life is fleeting
Knowledge is easy, wisdom is hard
Ask for what you want
Don’t wait for the planets to align to begin something
People and places are seldom what they appear at first blush
We’re all searching for answers
Life is frequently cruel, brutal, violent, heart-breaking,
Incomprehensible, sad, ridiculous, hilarious and
Beautiful;

We come into this world naked and alone
Leave the same way
Our end is known at the beginning
And the only uncertainty is the hour and circumstance
Of our departure
The time in between is brief, best measured in minutes
Not years
What matters are those we love and what we do;

OK, the calendar says I’m 50
But as far as I’m concerned
I’m just getting started