Senator McCain and the Devil of Death

           I’m 64 and I have no idea why death is supposed to be an angel. Death is a devil; it is the end of all things, the ultimate pit stop or, even worse, a universe without blogs.

          The numbers act like triggers; sixty-four may be young to some but sixty-four comes with a series of unwanted questions. You’re still here? When are you going to retire? Or, even more unsettling, one of your students says, “My father had you back in the seventies”.  It’s jarring to know that your first students’ grandchildren are on the way in, as you are on the way out.

       You are going to die. Possibly tomorrow. So an admonition from Ortega y Gasset becomes your only credo: You have a moral obligation to live each moment with as much intensity as possible. I try to do that but America’s age norms want to prevent me from working. In the United States we generally conceive of life as a bell curve. At 64 I am going downhill so it is time to move to one of the nation’s ecological graveyards. I can pick Phoenix or Miami; I will carefully choose an adult community (55 or older) and I will play and talk to my own kind about whom we were, not what we can or will be.

    I recently told a colleague that I had just started a new book. She looked at me like I had problems. She seemed to imply that that part of my life was over. It was time to stop typing and use the computer for age appropriate activities: Watching black and white movies or, even more in vogue, getting my exercise by bowling via a Nintendo Wii.

   Senator McCain sees things differently. He believes that life is a line and it ends when he dies. While he waits, he has the right to do whatever he pleases, even become President of the United States.

    I’m not sure. And I think that the nation needs to make Senator McCain’s age an issue in this campaign. I do not mean that it should be a negative issue. I applaud the Senator for seeing life as a line and I think he should continue to walk on that line as long as he pleases. But, so far, nobody wants to use the Senator’s candidacy to initiate a national conversation about the rights, responsibilities, and possible limitations of life as a line vs. life as a bell curve.

        In a slight change to their vision of life as a bell curve, the Italians just upped their retirement age to 59! That builds in a spectacular sense of expectation and entitlement. A person who lives to 80 will spend a quarter of their life on the public dole. Is that good? Is it bad? Is it nuts? Where will society get the financial resources to support so many retirees? And why not use Senator McCain’s candidacy to ask even more basic questions: Does American society want to teach people that they ought to retire? Or, even worse, do we want to teach people that after a life of hard work, they are entitled to retire; they are entitled to live well; and they are entitled to have younger people pay the piper? As Roger Lowenstein stresses in his just published, While America Aged, it is that sense of entitlement that helped ruin General Motors and bankrupt the city of San Diego.

     Senator McCain’s career and candidacy suggests that he thinks differently. Why not say that in a speech? Tell us that he disagrees with many of his age cohort. He wants to achieve things for as long as he is able and he wants young people to follow his example. By all means, cover your butt. Prepare for old age. But, instead of living in Phoenix, try the middle of New York City. Live with Americans of all ages and for those of you who are amazed that my brain still functions at 72, I offer this response. I am not the problem. The problem is what Americans learned about the aged. Many of us are as capable -or even more capable- than ever and we would appreciate the rest of you recognizing that obvious fact.

   I hope the Senator makes this kind of aggressive speech. Those of us who conceive of life as a line need all the encouragement we can get.

     But, and this is a big but, there is still the devil of death. The Senator can talk about his 96 year old mother all he wishes but, let’s face it; he is going to die sooner rather than later. In addition, the Senator has had cancer. So have I. And while the doctors tell me that the cancer is gone they still have me appear for the periodic exams that check for the reappearance of that devilish disease. So, with all the rights and responsibilities of life as a line, are there also limitations? Should certain jobs be out of the question? Does a 72 year old man have the right to be President of the United States?

           While this is anything but an easy question it is also one that we need to openly debate and discuss. So far the age issue is taboo. But raised in the context of the rights, responsibilities and possible limitations of life as a line, raising the age issue is legitimate. Anyone in their seventies who is honest knows that the devil is lurking around the next corner; given that fact, does it make sense to talk about two terms when it is questionable the person will make it through one?

   My inclination is to say that 72 is too old to begin a Presidency; but I can be convinced to go either way so I hope that, as a nation, we will openly discuss the elephant that to date is still standing in the corner.