Ninety Years Without Slumbering

 A week ago, I had trouble sleeping as sometimes happens now that I am in my maturity.  I got up around midnight and took in a rerun of a Twilight Zone episode.  This one was entitled Ninety Years Without Slumbering.  Each episode begins with a narration.  Here’s the narration for this episode:

Each man measures his time; some with hope, some with joy, some with fear. But Sam Forstmann measures his allotted time by a grandfather's clock, a unique mechanism whose pendulum swings between life and death, a very special clock that keeps a special kind of time—in the Twilight Zone.

This episode was based, as you might surmise, on the old song, The Grandfather Clock.  To summarize the song, it has the old man, who is in a close relationship with the grandfather clock, dies when the clock stops shirt, never to go again.

 It was a pretty good episode – not one of the best in my opinion – but enjoyable as almost all the episodes of this classic series are.  It was a clever idea which had a twist at the end as all Twilight Zone episodes must.  The old man in the episode was played by venerable character actor Ed Wynn, who fit the part of the old man perfectly. All well and good.  However, there was a suprize ending for me personally.  I was watching this on the eve of my seventy-sixth birthday on April 1, 2025.  And as I have been saying, at this stage in my life, there’s no fools like an old fool.

The surprise for this fool was that the Sam Forstmann character played by Ed Wynn was – you guessed it – seventy- six years old.  Now you have to appreciate that Ed Wynn appeared in my eyes to be exactly what he was portraying - an old man.  There was no way, in my mind’s eye, that I was an old man – even if I was about to turn 76.  I am able to rationalize the dissonance of this by saying that 76 today is not what it was in 1963 when it was aired.  In those ancient days 76 was old – wasn’t it?  Well, I can consol myself that 76 today is the new fifty or perhaps 60 – if I want to kid myself.  Some days I don’t feel that old.  However, some days I do – especially after a less than good night’s sleep.

In any case, I must admit that I don’t look 50 or even 60 if I look closely at my reflection – if the lighting is good.  My days are dwindling down to a precious few- or hopefully, perhaps more than a few.  It matters more than even what I do with the time I have left – however long that is.

Thoughts for the journey.