Who Knows Where the Time Really Goes

Exactly forty years ago today...

...I turned thirty years old. This picture was taken just before I was about to leave for a celebration dinner at the fabulous Windows on the World restaurant on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center. It was a wonderful evening and forty years later it is still a fabulous memory. What I had no idea of, on that hot July night in 1980, was that two months later I would interview for the best job I've ever had, in the Mayor's Office in City Hall.   

Today I turned seventy. I find it almost impossible that forty years have elapsed and the job I didn't know existed is now long ago history. I am amazed these years have gone by, slowly at times, but mostly like a freight train trying to make up for lost time. There's a lot of life in the rear view window, but despite all the turmoil and difficulties of 2020, I am optimistic about the time to come. 

The smiling young woman in the photograph is still smiling, at least some of the time. I am so grateful for the gift of seventy years of life. I am especially grateful for the people I've had the good fortune to share these seventy years with. It's unlikely that there's an exciting new job just over the horizon, but I know there will be people to meet, books to read, flowers to enjoy and sometime there will be new places to visit. Join me in a toast to the next journey of the freight train. It's pulling out of the station and the scenery ahead looks beautiful.