Class Note 1951
Issue
January-February 2024
These are precious days! There is something about reaching our mid-90s that really focuses our attention on unfinished business and unfulfilled “want-to’s.”
Like most of you, I’ve been thinking a lot about what would be wonderful in my remaining years. How does one use his limited time chips in ways that will be most pleasurable, satisfying, and contributive?
In past columns I have admired the wisdom of Dr. Atul Gawande, whose 2014 book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters In the End makes the point that the ultimate goal is not a good death but a good life—all the way to the very end. This month I picked up another marvelous book, The Beauty of Dusk: On Vision Lost and Found by Frank Bruni, a perceptive, articulate New York Times columnist. Not long ago Bruni began losing his sight. He has turned that experience into a life-changing journey of empathy, discovery, and renewal, approaching aging and mortality with joy.
Bruni describes his response to his losses: “Sometimes an ending is a new beginning. Sometimes a limit or a loss is a gateway to experiences you wouldn’t have sought, skills you wouldn’t have acquired.” Bruni sees challenges not so much as burdens, which indeed they are, but as influencers or determinants of how we spend our time, how we shape our lives, who we become. Key elements of this mindset: gratitude and appreciation.
As I look back at my recent columns I realize that I’m preaching to the choir. Jack Woods, Ed Landau, Dwight Allison, and others have shown us the way to finding joy in living and getting all there is to get out of life. As I talk to classmates I hear that joy expressed in giving back, volunteering, maintaining close ties to friends and family, discovering and exploring new interests and challenges, latching onto a sense of purpose. For starters, I recommend reaching out to a ’51 classmate. I guarantee you’ll come away enriched and rewarded.
I report with sadness the loss of six more classmates: Harry Berwick, Jim Bonnar, John Homsy, Ed Isbey, Paul Meyer, and Jerry Mitchell.
—Pete Henderson, 450 Davis St., Evanston, IL 60201; (847) 905-0635; pandjhenderson@gmail.com
Like most of you, I’ve been thinking a lot about what would be wonderful in my remaining years. How does one use his limited time chips in ways that will be most pleasurable, satisfying, and contributive?
In past columns I have admired the wisdom of Dr. Atul Gawande, whose 2014 book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters In the End makes the point that the ultimate goal is not a good death but a good life—all the way to the very end. This month I picked up another marvelous book, The Beauty of Dusk: On Vision Lost and Found by Frank Bruni, a perceptive, articulate New York Times columnist. Not long ago Bruni began losing his sight. He has turned that experience into a life-changing journey of empathy, discovery, and renewal, approaching aging and mortality with joy.
Bruni describes his response to his losses: “Sometimes an ending is a new beginning. Sometimes a limit or a loss is a gateway to experiences you wouldn’t have sought, skills you wouldn’t have acquired.” Bruni sees challenges not so much as burdens, which indeed they are, but as influencers or determinants of how we spend our time, how we shape our lives, who we become. Key elements of this mindset: gratitude and appreciation.
As I look back at my recent columns I realize that I’m preaching to the choir. Jack Woods, Ed Landau, Dwight Allison, and others have shown us the way to finding joy in living and getting all there is to get out of life. As I talk to classmates I hear that joy expressed in giving back, volunteering, maintaining close ties to friends and family, discovering and exploring new interests and challenges, latching onto a sense of purpose. For starters, I recommend reaching out to a ’51 classmate. I guarantee you’ll come away enriched and rewarded.
I report with sadness the loss of six more classmates: Harry Berwick, Jim Bonnar, John Homsy, Ed Isbey, Paul Meyer, and Jerry Mitchell.
—Pete Henderson, 450 Davis St., Evanston, IL 60201; (847) 905-0635; pandjhenderson@gmail.com