It's About the Young and Their Fellow Travelers

The past few days have been so sad, between Vegas, Petty, and deaths close to home.  My friend Jeff and I spoke yesterday -- he's my most Eeyore of friends.  Even in happy times he's measured and a bit sad sounding.  He called while I was at the office with Stuart, and described the funeral of our mutual acquaintance Gayle.  After he hung up, Stu looked around the office for something to kill himself with.

I had a great catch up breakfast with Norman -- his father Max's birthday is today.  He's 90.  Max is the youngest greatest generation man I ever met.  His 90 years contain a man who is as young as anyone I know.  So many people I know become old in their 60s.  Max is more tech savvy than anyone.  His kids, grandkids, and great grandkids literally fight over him -- who gets to spend time with him, take him out.

Unfortunately, Max is an outlier.  Wifey and I visited many of his fellow 80-90 somethings the other night at the Palace. Wasn't nothing young about the residents -- sour faced, shuffling along.  My mother in law, turning 93 this December, is going down fighting, but has declined so much.  Wifey worked on a jigsaw puzzle with her mother -- she could no more fit in a piece than she could run a mile.  Also, she "wrote out" recipes for her famous cookies, and handed them to Wifey.  The writings were non sense gibberish.

I guess the ultimate, luck person is to age like Max.  It's just so rare.

And then I got a call from D1, on her way home from a Junior League meeting.  For her, it was all about the positive -- the future.  She and S1 are looking into buying their first house together, and as she spoke, it reminded me of Wifey and me in the 80s -- all excitement, all eyes on days to come.

It helps that S1 is an accountant.  He has spread sheets about pros and cons of various houses -- this one is less money, but needs stuff, that one is more expensive, but move in.  They're probably going to buy in Morningside, a gentrifying part of Miami close to Downtown and surrounding a gorgeous City Park on Biscayne Bay.

The houses there were built in the 20s through the 50s, mostly small, well constructed places, that are being expanded and renovated.  Lots of gay folks live there -- a sure sign it's a neighborhood on the rise.  D1 and S1 aren't interested in any cookie cutter 'burbs -- and I applaud the way they're going about things.

And mostly, I admire their youth.  Sadness is around them, but the future is far more important than dwelling on the world's problems.

Yes -- it's about the young.  They own the future, and I look forward to seeing what they do with it.