More power to Abercrombie, others who don’t act their age

Afew people took issue with an item in my Sunday "flASHback" column that described Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s issuance of an emergency decree a day before Tropical Storm Flossie didn’t arrive as a case of "premature evacuation."

The only barb that really got my attention was an anonymous online note that said, "Premature evacuation? Is that something old guys like the Gov and Shapiro really have to worry about?"

Ouch. I’m not going to even try to defend myself on that point, and the governor is on his own.

I do have to face the reality, however, that I am indeed getting older, though not as old as Abercrombie; he recently turned 75, and I’m still a few weeks short of 65.

But age is a relative thing, and there’s a lot of truth in the saying that you’re only as old as you feel, which is where the governor has me beat by many a mile.

Whatever you think of Abercrombie, you’ve got to give him credit for the remarkable body of accomplishment he’s posted between the ages of 65 and 75.

He capped off a 20-year career in the U.S. House of Representatives by serving as chairman of a key armed services subcommittee, helped a younger man he’d known since infancy become president of the United States and got himself elected governor of Hawaii.

It exhausts me to even think about trying to keep up with him.

And exhaustion is not what I aspire to. Personally, I’m quite comfortable with stepping back and letting the younger generations coming behind me take the lead in shaping their own future.

I hope to continue my part-time columnizing, and I have projects I’d like to finish — some of my own and some I’m helping others with — but generally I’m looking to wind down at 65, not rev up.

With a freshly printed Medicare card in my wallet, I find my focus turning to simpler priorities such as interfering in my grandkids’ upbringing, tending to old friendships and finally learning to wring some respectable blues out of a harmonica.

My younger brother Rick is my opposite; he’s preparing for eventual retirement from his managerial job by getting himself certified as a P90X extreme fitness trainer and independent beach body coach.

If all goes according to plan, he’ll spend his golden years leading people half his age on 6-mile sprints through the sand.

Bless him. Bless Neil Abercrombie. Bless all who strive to be all that they can be for as long as they can be it.

But for me, longer naps are the only new challenges I’m up to. Some might call it premature capitulation, but I prefer to look at it as constructive loafing.

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Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.