Yes, I’m fully aware of the vilification of Dr. Seuss, but he was a very wise man–particularly when he said: Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened. Reminiscent of Tennyson’s line: Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.

As I said in a previous blog, my 75th year is riddled with introspection. As I fast forward through my memories, I realize that some of my darkest moments now bring smiles and sometimes downright laughter. Several months ago when my next door neighbor and best bud for thirty plus years died, I thought I was broken. But the other day, I found a silk scarf she’d brought me from her trip to Australia and a half-pack of her cigarettes she left in my keeping. (Yes, she smoked for over fifty years, and her husband didn’t know. Her story, not mine.) I found these discoveries so amusing I spent the next hour or so recalling some of our most memorable shenanigans like the night she donned one of my kid’s wigs and convinced some folk she was Melania with her accent. As many of you have lost a family pet, you understand the grief. Yet, somehow as you scroll through your pictures, you cherish their puppy antics. And though it was funny when it happened, one of my former dogs stole two, thawing steaks off the kitchen island when I went to retrieve the mail.

Curiously, Dr. Seuss’ wisdom can be applied to a myriad of things: retiring from a career, losing an election, December 26th, summer vacations, or even a marriage. But as I posited several weeks, life is a short trip. There are no do-overs. I have a choice. I can cry until my last breath or I can….