Special to The Tribune
FORT WORTH, Texas - My daughter Gabrielle likes to call me from New York to ask me how things are going. She knows. She knows little changes in my life. She knows I still enjoy my black coffee in the morning in the company of my ragged coffee shop gang. She knows I still don't eat my veggies. She knows I still won't cut my hair. She knows I still don't have that one woman in my life. She knows I'm getting older.
"How old are you this year, Dad?" she asked on the morning of my most recent birthday.
I replied as I have replied for the past decade, "Hon, I'm still younger than Mick Jagger."
She laughs beautifully, as 24-year-old Kiddoes can do, tells me that's funny and soon goes to more serious topics, like have you been to the doctor, and have you bought new clothes, and have you thought about going Vegan, and have you made that haircut appointment, and have you bought new boots, and have you been nice to women. It is stuff a divorced father would expect to hear from a daughter.
This comes to you after watching Jagger on Larry King Live last night. As most of my friends know, I'm a huge Rolling Stones fan. My long hair has little to do with The Stones and more to do with a complete disdain of short hair. My dress is casual, faded jeans being a big part of my small wardrobe. Perhaps it has much to do with my younger days, when I enjoyed being what it was I was - a rebellious college student who morphed into a rebellious journalist. Do I feel old? Only when I think of it, which is never.
Life gives you chronology, but you don't get a road map. You are here only for a certain time, but time is defined in part by you. The road is long, is what I like to say. And one is free to get on and off it at anytime. For me, life is daily; that is, I make certain that something happens every day, something new & different, whether a drive to a new breakfast eatery or chat with a woman I've never seen before. Who knows? Maybe I should look and act my age.
Maybe...yeah, maybe...
- 30 -
1 comment:
Sir Mick Jagger (born Michael Philip Jagger on 26 July 1943 in Dartford, Kent, England)[1] is an English musician, singer-songwriter and record producer, best known as the lead vocalist of The Rolling Stones.
One kool old man.
milio
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