Carrie, Me, Nancy and Kelly Samons last October. Kelly turns 50 on February 2nd.
I will be fifty years old in 50 days. Though the date of this post will be January 28th, know that it is January 27th in the evening and in 50 days I will be fifty. Ironically enough, on the day I begin this assignment, my sister, Lynn, has a birthday TODAY. She is two years older than I am. Want to remember her age? Here’s a trick…same age as the Super Bowl. Super Bowl LII is on the way.
Dink, light bulb over the head. That is what happened today as I thought of making this a possibility. And here we are. With the first installment of 50 years in 50 days.
We don’t have enough time tonight. That is why I am beginning here. We have fifty days.
Know that I am one of the most fortunate and blessed individuals you will ever meet. I wish I knew why. I thank God for my life and the lives of others whom have made exceptional impact on who I am and what I believe and why.
When I stop on rare occasion to look at the catalog of photos I have shared here over the last four years, I am wide-eyed at all of the places I have been and people I have known and things that I have done. It is mind-boggling. And then, it is really not.
Press onward. That has been a mantra in the lexicon.
We are not here to have a bad time. That is another in the belief system.
There is always a better tomorrow out there. I believe that too.
But I have, on occasion over the decades, gotten very frustrated with myself. I’m not put off by others the way I am sometimes put off by me. I wish I could explain it. I can’t explain because I don’t even understand it myself. I have never been averse to money…but I have never chased it either. The simple questions long before I had very gainful employment were do my loved ones have their needs met and do I have enough geat to make the next Moody Blues concert? I’ve got news for you, if ticket prices were then what they are today, I would have missed a few of those early Moodies shows for sure.
I can make jokes about this. But, I just know it is never enough. That is my “Perfect Flaw” as Tim Krekel sang. There is always another photo to take that is better. There is always an idea that will help kids that is better. There is always a song I can write that means more. There is always a better post I can write here that means something to someone other than the one sitting here yammering. It has to get better, I tell myself. There are times I wish I could enjoy things more.
That comes around now and again when someone says something to me about a song that they heard from me and they tell me why it was important or that they want to sing it. Or…something like that. Truth be told, I probably don’t listen as well as I should to some of the nice things folks do say. I have already moved on and that may be wrong.
In 2006 I wrote a piece about the 1980 Olympic Hockey team winning the gold over the vaunted Russians. Their team picture is on display in my office. That is the greatest sports team the world has ever known. The piece I wrote ran in The Corydon Democrat, a great local weekly. A few days after it ran, Chris Martin, a guy a couple years younger than me I went to high school with, called me to tell me he enjoyed it. I was glad someone got it. Chris and I work in the same building now. We have never relived this conversation. There is no need. I appreciate Chris. Folks, I walk by his classroom and I want to walk in and take a seat in the back row just to soak in the Social Studies I have been missing and the current events speaks that are alive and well in his classroom. But…I am too busy to do that. At least I was last week. You never know.
What I do know is that I am blessed to be married to my dear wife, Carrie, and that she is my best friend. I don’t know how she does it. I am glad she does.
I have been asked if turning fifty is problematic to me. My feet and back argue with me, but aside from that, I don’t know what turning fifty means…other than it is a good way to spend some time…
Speaking the Rights!
Danny Johnson