How old am I?

Don’t believe that photograph. It’s already a year old, but I didn’t look that good the day it was taken. I have a great photographer and, though she doesn’t say so (and I don’t ask) I’m pretty sure she retouches some. (I’ll pass you her name if you want it. She’s someone from a Success Team whose talent I spotted some years ago and drafted her into service before the world discovered her. They have, so it might be too late for you to take her name after all, but I’ll give it to you anyway).

I justify this fiction by remembering that I'm a speaker and must put my best face forward or whatever. And I love the photo, whoever it's of.

So, about being 73. I have to tell you I did honestly think I’d be the first person to never get old, and if it weren’t for mirrors and people not even pretending to look shocked when I tell them my age and having to learn how to manage my pills like my mom does, I’d think that I had succeeded. Always on the alert for new strategies for easy (good) living I’ve learned to take full advantage of kindly, misguided people with under-utilized upper body strength whenever there's lifting to be done and I’ve actually accepted offers of seats on buses (except when they’re offered by nursing mothers or people who I’m convinced are older than I am. (What are they trying to pull?)

Interesting political aside: Since I’m almost a year older than McCain, I’m here to tell you that his problems aren’t due to his advanced age. I’m as clever as ever I was; maybe more so. When it comes to my work, I know from the problem solving processes I run at all my retreats that I’m at the top of my game. I can't run the marathon, but I never could anyway.

So I know it's not age with McCain, it’s his IQ. I thought his confusion, inappropriateness, bad judgement and wild, crazy eyes came from living in bad faith. But IQ is the determinant, I’m sure of it.

My proof: I watched Hilary get both desperate and nasty as we led into the primary, and now I’m watching McCain do the same as we lead into the election. The difference in my reactions is instructive. She’s smart as a whip, so I haven’t been able to forgive her for her ill-conceived dip into bad faith when she did her ‘negative campaigning’ against Obama. McCain is still as crafty as a rodent but I don’t see, and never did see, any towering intellect. Instead of finding his vile behavior unforgiveable, I find it pitiful. Not because he's old. To me, he's not old. I feel sorry for him because he's not smart.

Of course, as any sane person would, I’d fear far more for my country if Republican/ Rovian/Cheneyish low-down tricks manage to get McCain into office than if Hilary had become president. She may not be nice, but she's smart.

And then there's Obama, bless his heart. He seems nice, and I know for sure he's smart. I hope he wins, I surely do. When I watch the news for the next 4 to 8 years, I want to see his face there. I sense that I'd have more in common with him than McCain, and he's almost 30 years younger than I am.

Well, that’s all for the aging part of Living the Good Life right now. I still don’t believe it’s happening to me and I’m disappointed that people have fallen for my old-person disguise, but if you want to work with The Old Master in person, you probably should write me and find out when I’m running the next retreat. My latest goal is to live forever, but you know, Just in case.

What the hell.