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Yesterday, on Aug. 2, 2023, I turned 75 years old.
Some thoughts on this milestone:
First, I feel no different — emotionally or physically — than I did 50 years ago. I was lecturing, traveling and writing then, and I’m lecturing, traveling and writing today. I started my public life at age 21, speaking around America after spending a month in the Soviet Union, and wrote my first book at the age of 25. If anything, I do considerably more today than I did 50 years ago.
This has led to an interesting problem. Precisely because I have the same energy and the same enthusiasm for life as I had 50 years ago, there is a huge chasm between my chronological age and my self-perception age. Perhaps the best way to explain this is by asking anyone under, let us say, 40 years of age to imagine that someone told them that they are not 35 years old, but really 75 years old.
That is how I feel. I know my chronological age, but nothing has changed in me that makes me believe it. So, then, while how I feel and my energy levels are a blessing, like many blessings, they come at a price: massive cognitive dissonance.
Second, I walk around on a gratitude high. That I am so healthy and happy; that people in different parts of the world still invite me to speak; that my wife, children, grandchildren and friends are all healthy and still love me — these all produce in me immeasurable and constant gratitude. I know very well how lucky I am. Many people my age are ill, many never got to this age, many have lost a child or a spouse, many are alienated from one or more of their children and many are lonely.
It is common for people who inordinately suffer to ask, “Why me?” Well, I, too, constantly ask, “Why me?” Why have I been inordinately lucky?
Third, the one change in my life is that I often think about death. When you are young, you intellectually know that you will one day die. But you don’t really believe it. So, you don’t think about death unless someone close to you dies, and then, after some time has passed, you revert to not thinking about death. But after a certain age, you can’t help but think about it. You start to peruse obituaries.
My thoughts about death are not morbid, and they contain no fear. I don’t know what there is to fear. There are three possible fates after we die.
One is that there is nothing and we return to the unconscious state we were in before we were born. Why fear that? It is not unpleasant.
A second is a pleasant afterlife.
The third is an unpleasant afterlife — hell, if you will.
I have always rationally believed in an afterlife. I say “rationally” because it is not theology that leads me to believe in an afterlife; it is reason alone. I believe in God (also for rational reasons), and it is axiomatic that if there is a just God, there is an afterlife.
Of the three propositions — there is a God, God is just, and there is an afterlife — only the second demands faith. That God exists is a rational proposition — far more rational than the atheist position that everything came about on its own. That if God is just, there is an afterlife is also a rational proposition. Given how much injustice there is in this world, a just, not to mention loving, God must provide a way for all this to be worked out after we die.
But I acknowledge that the belief that this God who created the world is just and loving is somewhat a leap of faith. Given the amount of unjust suffering there has always been in this world, I can understand someone arguing that the Creator is not loving. I can understand it, but I don’t believe it. A God who created creatures who can love is probably a loving God. Otherwise, human beings are far superior to their Creator, a possibility that is not probable.
So, I have no fear of death. But I am sad about it. I am sad for me — I really, really love life. And always have. But I am mostly sad for all those who love me.
Finally, I have reason — though of course no certainty — to believe that I will be here for a while. I am healthy, my parents died at 89 and 96, and my one sibling is 80 and healthy. In addition, I have everything that contributes to health and longevity: profound friendships, a wonderful marriage, a loving family life, wonderful children and grandchildren, a communal life and a vibrant religious life. And dogs.
Last year, the oldest World War II veteran, Lawrence Nathaniel “Honey” Brooks, died at age 112. When asked the secret to his longevity, he answered, “God and cigars.” If he was right, I should be around for a while.
I sincerely hope that you are Dennis, you have been an inspiration during the lockdown hysteria. Thank you.
Catherine Hepburn
Welcome to the club. Same birthday, earlier model year, component parts no longer in manufacture, warranty long expired.
Bette Davis, dear, Bette Davis.
I am pretty sure that was. Bette Davis, dear
You’re righter than I am.
Bette Davis had a pillow or cushion with that inscription. The original promulgator is unknowable.
MacArthur often mentioned that only the dead have seen the end of war.
This observation may have been made by the Neanderthal.
Oh yeah. August 2nd, ” Saint de los Angeles”, aka, Luz Maria.
They threw away the mold. Thank goodness for bionics.
If you want a happy afterlife read the Bible and see what the words of truth
say about turning to Jesus for life eternal. I hope for you to do so as the Lord
says “no one comes to the Father but by me.”
He’s a devout Jew. Get o er it, and leave us alone
That may very well have been an intentional slight
In the first days of the Reagan administration, born agains who felt Reagan owed them for his election, mocked Goldwater, addressed him as “Mister Goldwater” and stated it was best to ignore him “till he accepts Jesus into his heart”.
I changed my voter registration to Independent. [ I later changed it back. ]
I’m a conservative. Period.
The only thing Jew baiters are getting from me is a pick handle to the face.
Congratulations! For the birthday, for the wonderful news on the state of your health and relationships. Those good relationships are not an accident. You did the work to make them something to treasure.
I am older than you and had reasonable good health until cancer. I have many more aches and pains than prior to illness. I now am on a medication that suppresses the cancer. At the outset of this “adventure” I had only the most exquisite gratitude for all the blessings that had been bestowed upon me throughout my life. And, like you, couldn’t imagine why I was so lucky. Still am bewildered and have had some survivor’s guilt about being alive when so many others, especially the young, are not so fortunate. I do love living also.
Here’s to life!
p.s. Thank you for all that you do. I appreciate the great courtesy with which you interact with the callers into your radio show and for your stalwart support of the virtues which God has commanded for human flourishing.
You’re only 18 months older than I—”just a baby,” as an older acquaintance during my college days used to say to me. I appreciate your comments on life and politics and truly wish more people followed your example—ours would be a much better country, if they did. As for death, I think about it a lot, as well, but hope that although I am not perfect, and maybe not even much of an example to others, I will at least be found worthy enough to stand before God and justify my actions in life. Long may you live and inspire.
Happy Birthday! I appreciated your writing on families, especially current political splits that do so much harm.
Many many happy returns.
I got to know Dennis Prager via PragerU some years ago.. Always an inspiration, and uplifting to listen. Always wise. Easy for a Dane to catch your meaning because your speak comes from common Christian-Jewish knowledge, and because you speak easy and thoughtfully, and carefully. Your teaching is very much appriciated. Thank you.
I must tell this audience that Dennis Prager was invited to Copenhagen last November to recieve a prize at the Danish Parliament. Danish Free Press Society wanted to celebrate his everlasting courage to speak truth and common sence to power and to ignorance and hostility towards Christian and Jewish faith. – It is as if rationality and common sence cannot prevail without guidance from these two intimately connected faiths.
I have had the pleasure of knowing Dennis since my sophomore year in high school where I observed him self teaching himself Russian. I have seen him grow over the years and often have the pleasure of listening to him on his radio show. People do not realize what his words mean to many people and give us strength even when the days look extremely bleak.
I wish Dennis many more years of happiness and good health and keep supporting right over wrong and happiness over depression.
Barry Mandel
“How much more suffering is caused by the thought of death than by death itself….
I am quite content with mortality; I should be appalled at the thought of living forever in whatever paradise. As I move on into my nineties my ambitions moderate, my zest in life wanes; soon I shall echo Caesar’s Jam satis vixi- I have already lived enough.” – Will Durant
Happy Birthday, belated. Great column. I am so grateful for you, your work, prageru.com, and for the hope there will continue to be much more of all.
By the way, one of my little treasures, which I have taped to my wall, is a 2017 hand-written and signed note from Dennis, thanking me for a small contribution to prageru.com. Such a kind gesture from such a busy man.