Roger Rosenblatt @ 85 - A Life Well Lived

If you are a reader in any regard, you know Roger Rosenblatt.

You may not have read his first novel Lapham Rising or his stirring memoir Making Toast. You may not recall any of the pieces he did as a writer and editor for the Washington Post or New Republic. You likely never read or don't remember his incredible Time Magazine cover essay "A Letter to the Year 2086" -- a piece put in the time capsule sealed in the Statue of Liberty at its centennial celebration.

But beyond any specific piece you've read or haven't, you somehow know the work, the writing, the style, the insight, the wisdom, the influence of Roger Rosenblatt. And if you don't believe me, then just give a quick perusal to this simple, tight, charming little column in the New York Times -- "I'd Like to Stay 85 Forever"

Now that I’m deep in my 80s, I’d like to stay here forever, and I’ll certainly try. I enjoy being here. The decade is the October of aging. And October is a lovely month, don’t you think?

I recite lots of poetry, sometimes to Ginny, often to the window. Poetry that has hibernated in my head since my 20s when I used to teach English and American literature at a university. I memorized great swaths of poetry then because it allowed me to talk directly to the students, eye to eye, as if the poetry existed not in a book, but in the air. Right now, if you turned me upside down and shook me (it really isn’t necessary), I could give you several Shakespeare sonnets, a Dylan Thomas villanelle, “The Mind is an Enchanting Thing” by Marianne Moore, the last lines of Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” and all of the introductory stanza to Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey.”

In Rosenblatt's writing, we can all find ourselves.

And, while it didn't take him eighty-plus years to figure out the secret of life, we benefit from his wisdom and reflections at that age. Prior to his recent piece about being an octogenarian, Rosenblatt shared his "10 Tips for Being Happily 85 Years Old (Like Me)".  And his first bit of advice is basically all you need to know about living in this world:

1. Nobody’s thinking about you. It was true 25 years ago, and it’s true today. Nobody is thinking about you. Nobody ever will. Not your teacher, not your minister, not your colleagues, not your shrink, not a soul. It can be a bummer of a thought. But it’s also liberating. That time you fell on your butt in public? That dumb comment you made at dinner last week? That brilliant book you wrote? No one is thinking about it. Others are thinking about themselves. Just like you.