Yesterday was my Dad’s birthday. He turned 77 years old.
When I phoned him to wish him well, one of the first observations he made about his age was this: He turned 77 years old. The average life expectancy for his demographic is 77.5 years. He hoped the next six months would go well for him.
We had a bit of a chuckle about that.
We spent a while just shooting the breeze, catching up on the latest news in our respective necks of the woods and talked about upcoming plans.
He said he found some old photos of me as a young adult and some of me as a kid. He’d like to hand these off to me the next time we meet in person. Also he found a stash of love letters I’d saved between me and my teen crushes. That’ll be fun reading, haha.
After closing the call I realized he and I had reached a stage a while back that was very comfortable.
I am no longer desperately grasping for his approval. This was a game-changer.
Don’t get me wrong; I still respect his insight and opinions and like it when we can joke about life, growing older, and the fact that uncertainty is still very much alive and real even with our combined 133 years of life experience.
But instead of a pair of guys who are seeking to convince and correct the other, we’re now just a couple of old pals who can comment on the state of existence and just appreciate each other’s company.
We’ve been thru a lot together in the last 50-odd years of life. We haven’t been in each other’s daily life for a few decades now but still, we’ve had our share of chats.
Here’s to six months of good health and choices for him. And six more after that. And many more after that.