By Robert J. Reitz
I’m old. I bear no ill will toward anyone who closed the back cover after reading that. For the remaining readers, I pose a question that has tugged at my sleeve for a couple of years: “What’s my responsibility to younger generations?”
The question can be answered across many topics: environmental, social, familial, professional, financial, etc. All valid choices. Should I maximize my impact by concentrating on one or spread my efforts like peanut butter across the cause-du-jour? That question alone is worth discussion.
A potential answer that’s been ignored so far is, “Absolutely nothing.” Should I focus on my personal physical, financial, and social well-being, having “been there, done that”? Previous End Papers have described my false alarm heart attack, and one of my bouts with COVID. My other physical maladies associated with aging have not been (and won’t be) inflicted on Contingencies readers. Lots of work to be done in that area.
There’s also the question of impact. How much can I, as one person, influence society’s response to climate change, Social Security’s deficit, the future of the actuarial profession, global hunger, etc.?
Another tug at my sleeve, and I hear a nagging whisper, “Do not despair at the enormity of the challenges we face today.” Winston Churchill defined success as, “…going from defeat to defeat with enthusiasm.” But Don Quixote, written by Miguel de Cervantes, describes the futile quest of a low-level noble who attempts acts of imagined chivalry, ending with his realization that all his efforts were in vain. Am I more like Winston Churchill or the Man of La Mancha?
Or am I asking the wrong question? Maybe I should ask myself the question I first heard over 50 years ago: “If, in 20 years, I would ask you, ‘Are you happy?’ what would you have done during that time that would have you answer ‘Yes’?”
I’ve posed that question to myself several times over the years, and it has become a useful beacon for behavior. The question has aided me in making better decisions in all aspects of my life. Well, not all the time, but most of the time.
These two questions will be addressed simultaneously. No, I won’t tilt at the windmills I mentioned earlier, but I can positively affect the lives of some people. Volunteering at the local food pantry, mentoring younger colleagues, and teaching and taking courses at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute on the campus of UNC-Asheville scratches both itches.
Bigger opportunities became apparent this summer while vacationing in Crete. We had several travel discussions with our host, and at a dinner we learned he had visited America a few years ago. George hesitated before relating his disappointing experience at a major western U.S. gambling mecca. “Is the rest of America like this?” he asked. We assured him America is a vast country with a limitless variety of experiences and offered to be his tour guide if he chooses to return.
His question opened my eyes. Like George, my grandchildren don’t know what they don’t know. Depending on their age, they’ve probably read and seen videos about foreign cities like Rome, Paris, or Athens. But those limited views through a knothole in their parochial barriers can lead to a warped understanding of other cultures. Nancy and I enjoy traveling to lesser-known places, here and abroad, and meeting people who share the same hopes and dreams as we do. Peace, safety, good health, and a better life for our family are common themes everywhere.
Our grandchildren might welcome help breaking through the walls surrounding their local lives. Their smiles and amazement at broadening their outlooks on the world would satisfy my yearnings to both my responsibility to younger generations and answering that philosophical question. Let me rearrange it, with a change to reflect my age. “If, in 10 years, you would ask me, ‘Are you happy?’ what would I have done during that time that would have me answer ‘Yes’?”
I believe I have my answer.