How I've spent the last 50 years:
Reflecting on "the life,", I guess it can be roughly outlined via a few themes: rootedness; family and friends; learning about the larger world along the way; and the kind of seeking I'm sure all of us have engaged in.
The rootedness may be another way of saying that I've always been nostalgic and, while loving the current moments, devoted to the good memories and wonderful ties of my youth. And so I remain involved with things Erasmus, periodically visit Flatbush, keep in touch with great old friends from the third grade on, and maintain folders on "things to do" on New York City (past and present. incl. restaurants in which to satisfy a life-long love of normal eating and noshing). (Please let me know if you're available as a walker-in-the-city-companion,as I switch to a 3-day per/wk schedule in May. Rootedness, too, through an extremely happy and lucky marriage to my wife Pat and close involvement with my children Laura and Karen (both are talented, wise, and kind, and their devoted husbands, Brian and Charles, who are friends to me, proud to say). And many years in the same home.
Over the same period, however, I did stretch my horizons - more for the sake of learning than out of a need for change - with undergraduate years at Cornell being the first major out-of-Brooklyn (often feeling out-of-body) experience. It was eye-opening and had a life-long impact (although those years only reinforced my desire to live in "the city"). Reading, lectures, and travel whenever possible have been other vehicles for my enthusiasms and curiosity -- and remain sources of ongoing pleasure. And more learning opportunities have come my way through two lovely grandchildren, Julia and Emily, whose own love of learning, questions, and giggles allow me to grow, and to act both mature and silly myself.
All the studies and prophets repeat the refrain of the centrality of friends and family to a "meaningful" life, and in that, too, I've been truly fortunate. My parents shaped and loved me, and in return I gave them, joined by my wife, a long period of intensive, often challenging assistance -- as I'm sure many of you have done as well -- as they declined and our early roles reversed in so many ways. Keeping life-long friends has also been a source of great pleasure, and a pattern, over the years. The time we share together, even when only by phone, brings back strong memories of that lucky childhood in Brooklyn and provides joy and laughs as we share old times and current life experiences.
And then there's been the internal (and eternal!) seeking, trying to make sense of the huge collage of this life and all its "stuff." Learning that there's no one answer to the "meaning of it all" question, or to understanding what impact, if any, I've had through 40-plus years of interesting work, or what legacy I'll leave (and how long could it last, anyway?). Turns out to be just too difficult to fathom or clarify. Writing this out is a bit of a help in that vein. Yet, it's still so difficult that I'm now concluding and heading to the frig for a really big nosh!
With love and warm wishes to all of you - Larry
