When I was in my 20s there was a commercial on TV in California for Federated Stores, a chain of stores that sold electronics. They had a spokesman, Shadoe Stevens, who played a character named Fred Rated. I’ll never forget one commercial in which he played Fred as a medieval knight in shining armor greeting a beautiful young maiden.
“What ho, fair maiden,” he’d call. “Hast thou seen for such as doth I seek?”
He cracked me up. I was captured by Shadoe’s performance, his manic cadence, and committed the words to memory. I can hear him still tonight.
Today is the last day I’ll ever be 66. Tomorrow I’ll turn 67, one day closer to the arrival of the Grim Reaper. Days like these are invariably a punch in the gut, propelling me to examine where I am and to envision where I could have been if only, and where I’d like to be before it’s too late. That’s what I’m doing tonight.
Happy Birthday to me.
It’s something I’ve done before. On my last night in my 20s, I saw myself clearly and the next day, imagined myself educated. It changed everything.