74

King of the Jungle in Washington, DC

74. Just a number. Nothing more. Well, maybe more. That is the number of times I’ve been around the sun. Doesn’t seem like a big number. Howsomever, I did the math (dangerous). Seventy four times around the sun is just north of 43,000,000,000 miles. 43 BILLION. That is one long road and maybe is why I get tired so easily.

“I’ve seen the elephant,” was a phrase I’d read as a kid, something a mountain man or pioneer or some other American adventurer would say when answering a question about his life. (Always a “his” in those days, women weren’t allowed) To me, the phrase meant the speaker had been to the Big City, civilization, and seen the most exotic things…an elephant being the most exotic of them all. I know variations exist to the meaning but the mountain man one sticks in my head.

Have I seen everything? Well, no, certainly not. But, I’ve seen quite a lot of things. Many of these things I’ve actually seen and touched. Other things I’ve not seen, just felt the impact.

I’ve seen iron lungs and people with polio, and I remember the vaccines and the excitement of my parents when I got the shots and the oral sip. I have a round scar on my arm from a small pox vaccination, you don’t see that anymore.

In October 1962 I remember watching the sky and wondering if I’d see nuclear warheads raining down on my head. I remember walking into my high school building and hearing that JFK had been murdered. I remember turning the news on at night and watching the horrors of war in my living room. I remember going to an RFK rally and then a few days later he was murdered.

I remember camping in Canada and listening to a tiny transistor radio as man landed on the moon for the first time. I learned about American apartheid and white supremacy, first on television and then in person when I lived in Alabama years later. I learned about reservations and the horrible poverty and racism in my home state.

During college I learned to protest, how to march in support of a cause and how the institutions resist change and even kill the protesters. I watched a president of the U.S. openly lie to all of America and then resign in disgrace.

I learned to fly jets, I went faster than the speed of sound and flew where the sky is black. Over the years I stood at attention during taps as ten of my pilot friends were buried.

I went to a cooking school that taught me French cuisine with words I still can’t pronounce. I practiced law long enough to know I didn’t like it and was not very good at it.

I bought my first computer, a Commodore 64, in 1982. In 1984, I met and talked with Grace Hopper, a pioneer in computer programming.

Hmmm. That’s enough. The first half of the 43 billion mile journey. But, I think I’ve seen the elephant. Of course, I wouldn’t mind seeing another, just not today.