I Am 70 Today: Time to Hit the Road

A bit of birthday cake, an early dinner, and a flight to Warsaw

I have no bucket list.

I have done everything I wanted to experience in this life. Family, university degrees, spiritual experimentation, romance, kids, business success, startups, world travel, stage acting, authoring, living on a tropical island. Friends, heartbreak, resurrection, joy, pleasure, knowledge, serenity.

70 means a rededication to living the identity I have crafted, with integrity and a fat dose of adventure. Surrounding myself with love, of family and friends and colleagues and strangers. Embracing and respecting the aging process while honoring the 18-year-old still alive in my heart.

I remember as a teenager in Oceanside, New York, a long-haired neighbor said goodbye to me with these words, “Spread the word of peace.” Yeah, I hope to do that.

70 means reaffirmation. In my cable biz days, I interviewed George Foreman. He told me, “Age is not a death sentence.” A few weeks later, I took my father Sol and his childhood friend Leo Levine to see the 45-year-old boxer, thought long gone after losing to Ali in Zaire, knock out the 26-year-old heavyweight champion Michael Moorer at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. A most electric moment.

Dad was in his seventies at the time. At 86, in the year of his passing, he wheeled a small oxygen tank around Vegas, his emphysema the result of a lifelong smoking habit. I was at a national cable TV convention and one of the networks threw a party. Dad left his oxygen tank in his car trunk out of vanity and wore an old but smart blazer. He danced with a young British woman. “Want to meet my son?” I thought it embarrassing at the time. Now I don’t.

Tired, excited, and checked in at BKK Airport

70 invites reimagining who you are, what you value, how you want to live in the coming decade. Life is no longer a dress rehearsal.

Years ago, I adopted an odd creative path, traveling around the world, meeting remarkable people, and exploring themes dear to me. Why is my country always at war and does it achieve its promised objectives? How do citizen movements succeed? How does fascism take hold? What do we seek in love at midlife? How do jazz legends create?

It’s 3am at the Abu Dhabi airport. On to Warsaw, then across the border to Ukraine to gather stories on art and love during their time of resistance. I hope you come along.