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TO SEE AN OLD MAN AS YOUNG

a gentleman in his fifties stands on the corner of 23rd and first avenue waiting for the bus. despite his protruding belly, he seems like he could have been good looking as a young man. he has the confidence of someone who never had trouble making friends, or speaking to romantic interests.

i was in an uber with the windows open, and fresh air traveled up my nostrils to my brain and said, "he is young."

he is three times my age.

sixty years ago, it was another man standing there, past his physical prime but perhaps only at the start of his wisdom. the scientists say after middle-age, happiness tends to go up and up as you get older. maybe it's because you realize you're closer to death than you are to your own genesis, and the prospect of spending the rest of your life miserable is unappealing.

i am, today, not miserable.

i see this old man as young.

i see him next to the ghost of decades past.

do you know what an old man from the 1970s would have given to live into the new millennia? to see life expectancy grow by ten years, see the internet bloom and loom over the modern world, to sit and wait for a bus just one more time in new york city and breathe earth's fresh air?

disregard your thoughts of an afterlife — the kingdom of heaven is right here, on this corner, if you believe it.

what about all that is wrong with the world today? there is plenty.

as with every period in history.

would you like to be born into a bloody war or political polarization? into serfdom or soul-sucking social media? my point isn't that one is better than the other. the pitfalls of life will always exist, and even with air conditioning and an abundance of food, there will always be someone who says life is terrible.

i hesitate to believe it — not when our wise ancestors would give anything to be here with us.