Maturity milestone
August 22, 2006| By Edwin J. Feulner
There it was at our staff meeting: the first birthday cake with the magic number 65 on top. They went with the big number candles, so they wouldn't have to bother lighting dozens of separate ones. Probably a smart move.
Sixty-five. That was once time to retire. And indeed, when I was younger I expected that in my mid-60s, I would join the "over the hill gang." After all, when I consider the staff here at the Heritage Foundation, I note almost all 200 are younger than I. Even a couple members of our board are years my junior. Yet there's plenty of work to do, and I'm not ready to hang it all up. When I wrote about turning 50 --which I did just yesterday, it seems—I noted, "Fifty really does have a different feel to it than 49." Tom Brokaw put it well when he turned 50: "At this age, mistakes, however daring, are not easily excused. Achievement is not a cause of praise; it is expected."
Sixty-five is an age and, too often, an end. At 65. Jack Welch and so many others have followed company policy and hit the golf course—permanently.
If they tire of golf, like my Dad did, they take up something else. In Dad's case, oil painting. One time I called home, and my mother answered the phone. After chatting a bit, I asked where Dad was. She responded, "Oh, he's out on the porch painting." Me: "Is he getting any better?" Mom: "No, but he's getting faster." Now we have his masterpieces all over the grandkids' room at the beach house. They're too young to notice these aren't really world-class, priceless Impressionist originals.
But turning 65 shouldn't be a time to lament. It's a time to reflect and to make a difference. I'm lucky to still be able to make an impact.
It's also a good time to look at the balance sheet.
On the asset side:
- A great wife and companion for the last 37 years.
- Two exasperating, challenging and loving children with great spouses and three wonderful grandchildren. All I can say about Betsy, William and Sara is the usual grandparent lament: "I wish we'd had them first."
- Terrific friends from around the block, around the Beltway, around the country and even around the world.
- Good health for us all. In fact, my best 65th birthday present was my buddy at Sloan-Kettering telling me: "The picture on the computer screen's clear, and I never want you to darken my door again."
- The opportunity to work with a team of first-class people to conceive, build and make permanent an institution in Washington that's really making a difference for the policies we believe in for all our fellow citizens.
- The chance to participate in the changes that have occurred throughout the world; the realization government is more often a part of the problem than a part of the solution; and to observe the fall of communism as an ideology and as a governing force.
- A niche in the scheme of things that God has put in place.
On the liability side:
- The missed opportunities for enough togetherness with family and friends because of job demands.
- Loss of parents, a sister, a nephew and other loved ones, which seems so much harder to accept today with all the advances of modern medicine.
- The constant fight with those extra 2 stone (that sounds better than 25-plus pounds) around my middle that I've battled all of my adult life.
- The missed opportunities to perfect my German, learn fly fishing and take on new assignments.
- The loss of some political battles. But then again, there's no such thing as a permanent political victory.
All in all, it's pretty clear my assets far outweigh my liabilities.
As I reach 65, at the front of the Baby Boomer generation, I think it's time to remove some of this magic number's stigma. "Retire at 65" was a policy made long ago, when life expectancy was 67 or 70. It's time to start pushing the retirement date back a year or two at a time. That would give talented people a chance to stay in the workplace and start addressing looming problems of Social Security.
As for turning 65: No, I don't like it, but I guess I will put up with it. After all, I'm still "on the right side of the sod," and when—or perhaps I should say if—75 rolls around, these will be "the good old days."
Edwin Feulner is president of The Heritage Foundation (heritage.org), a Washington–based public policy research institute and co-author of the new book Getting America Right.
This article first appeared in The Washington Times on August 20, 2006.
