An (almost) Entry-Less Day...

Today is quickly becoming endangered as an “entry-less” day. A lot of issues are going on, with very little time in which to take care of them. In fact, it was almost decided to let the day go by, but this daily exercise in writing has become a routine of sorts… and one I look forward to...

Frankly, sitting at the dreaded one eyed monster and staring at the window does little to bring Pulitzer Prize material to mind but then, none of the other stuff put on these posts has brought much fame and glory either… Anyway… upward and onward...!  Whoever coined that phrase was a little confused… you can either go up or move onward… unless you are a plane taking off… Yeah… yeah… I know it was conceptive phraseology…

I am now barely three days away from my 65^th birthday, some sort of a milestone, I’m told. Is this because of having managed to make it this far? Or just that it’s retirement time? Or maybe that it gives others the hope they can also move on in life and get to an “older” age?  Not sure; but it looks like a whole bunch of us are getting there within the next 5 years; the largest retirement generation I’m told. At a time in which the economics of the different social structures in the country are already sagging under the weight of responsibility. Hmmm… What will happen to the following generations, as they come to retirement? There is still time to correct this colossal and potentially crippling issue; people receiving retirement pay may actually, at some point in the not too distant future, come close to equaling the number of those who are contributing into the system… dangerous ground to tread.

We have much to learn about this incredibly important issue; what I do know comes from my time in insurance management and consultation which, during the 80’s, involved the study of these structures and making the results of these analysis into presentations; these were given in different countries where privatization of Social Security was a very required topic. In several markets serious attempts were made and some countries still do have functioning and competing private and public systems. But the fact remains that the viability of a non-actuarially based long term payout program has been increasingly questioned elsewhere, while here we are afraid to put this reality to the test.

Get off the soap box, you say? Well… OK…

Many of the shops are still there

When writing into these posts, the subject matter is usually totally open to the moment and the feel of the moment. Beginning this post, the retirement/social security issue came to the fore. Now, as this post is slowly taking form (well, OK… a little misshapen but… what do you want at 6:30 pm??), I am listening in the background to music which brings many sweet memories to mind. Mostly music from the late 50’s into the late 60’s… Usually, the thoughts come around to a significant other who was present in my life during those times. It is definitely mellowing, at least emotionally, to be able to be so transported back in time and into those especial moments.

Some still look the same!!

Some took place in Cuba… last moments of an era and of a way of life which unbeknownst to us, would be soon gone… never to return except in the hearts and minds of those who lived it. Some other moments, for me and many others like myself, covering a span of time that went from what was still relative innocence, into and through a quickly and forced learning process. Change of country, language, ideas, people… just like changing a pair of socks… Not!!  Then going into army service at a very difficult period…  The drug issues, starting with the ubiquitous “grass” and then escalating into other, terribly harmful chemicals… a generation which nearly lost its collective mind while trying to find the reality of “self”. Those are part of the memories which make each of us into the individuals we are today…

The old Fillmore East...

In ’69 I was covering part of Manhattan for a company. This included St. Marks Place. I loved this one block world which went from Cooper Square to Second Avenue, where the grand Fillmore East (R.I.P.) theater was located… home to many rock concerts with the then biggest band names. That was a block dominated by little “hippie” shops with all kinds of paraphernalia, clothing, hats, and whatever else you wanted to find, having to do with “Hippiedom” and freedom of mind… such as it were… I remember that by simply walking down this block and inhaling deeply, by the time I made it to the other corner… it was easy to be flying higher than a kite…

Not too long ago, I had the chance to walk down this block again. It was a home coming time of a sort, since many of the shops (now shoppes, by Golly!!) were still there and some looking incredibly much the same as they did 40 years ago… One missing ingredient though… no wafting clouds of smoke coming from behind these doors…

Oh well… some things change while others remain much the same … we all move upward and onward… (no comments, please!!)

Be well… Be Back!!