BLUE STREAK

  Leon Trotsky was a Russian revolutionary, a Marxist-Leninist from the old school. His dedication to freeing the masses from a system ruled by a cruel, privileged aristocracy was unparalleled. His efforts may have been noble in theory but he certainly overlooked the diabolical nature of men who rise to power only to replace the current tyranny with another tyranny. He left hundreds of quotes behind but I find one to be absolutely prophetic even if it makes no ideological argument; late in life he observed, “Old age is the most unexpected of all things that can happen to a man.”  He never saw it coming. 

I tend to identify with commoners and defend (as best I can) those who need help but that’s where I part ways with Trotsky. I saw it coming. When my kids really were kids, every summer, one way or another we made it down to Sandusky, Ohio and Cedar Point Theme Park. They had The Blue Streak, (then) the tallest, longest, fastest of the old fashioned, wooden structure, steel wheels & tracks roller coasters anywhere. If we got there early you could squeeze in two rides before the line got so long that it wasn’t worth the wait. But then we all grew up and Cedar Point became a wonderful memory and a great story. Then, for my (59th) birthday in 1998 my grown kids took me back to Cedar Point. When we rode the Blue Streak the vibration made my teeth hurt, my head hurt and the ascent up the next hill was insufficient to recover and the next plunge was like running a gauntlet, getting beat up again and again. 

The Blue Streak adventure of ’98 was neither the first warning nor the last but it compounded the ultimate message. It didn’t sneak up on me like it did Trotsky, the onset of old age shook me like a rag doll until my teeth hurt. Not in that moment but certainly in reflection it occurred to me that I was not the stallion I once was. The ride was designed to maximize acceleration and free-fall, twisting and turning while minimizing the bleeding off of speed before the next plunge. Near the end, in a long, easy, downhill curve we heard the brakes engage and felt the inertia. Up ahead the line of thrill junkies waiting for us to offload signaled that our ride was about to end and what awaited us was an easy walk down a gentle ramp where the most exciting prospect was a cup of ice cream under a shady umbrella. No, I saw it coming. 

Once upon a time I had a daughter in law whose fear of growing old bordered on stupidity and unabashed pride. She agonized over her 29th birthday because she hated the idea of turning 30, which was unavoidable and only a year away. She moved on without us and I have no regrets other than my son’s bad choice in the first place and its aftermath. I learned that the best revenge is to live well and we have moved on likewise, living well. 

I am an unbeliever so the hope of an afterlife is not part of my guide to the universe. Hope is a great motivator when you have some (at least a little) input with the process but without that, it’s just wishful thinking. With that in mind the Blue Streak is a good life lesson. The ride is going to be exciting, even the vibrating and shaking. As the end approaches, it seems like it should go on, and on, even just another few ups and downs. But it doesn’t work that way, never did, and we knew it before we got onboard. I was privy to a discussion, a polite disagreement and exchange between a devout believer and another old heretic (like me) about the ultimate, unresolvable mystery. The question asked was; “If you don’t believe in Heaven, what do you think it will be like for you after you die?” My counterpart thought for a moment and replied, “It will be about the same as it was before I was conceived.” I’ve always liked that uncomplicated sense of time and place. 

I don’t think anybody has difficulty understanding and accepting that our bodies are about 60% water, that all of our water moves in and out through us rapidly; and that all of the water on the planet has been here all along, cycling and recycling through the water cycle, weather, plants and animals. There is a very high probability that my body today, right now, has H2O molecules that once cycled through George Washington, and before him, Black Beard the pirate, and Genghis Kahn, even Cleopatra. If that is true, and it is more likely than not, then how about the natural decomposing and recycling of organic compounds into Oxygen, Carbon, Nitrogen, Potassium and so on? It makes a plausible argument for reincarnation at the pieces & parts level. Some of my parts showing up a few generations later in a sunflower or a humming bird; that would be awesome.

I’m not selling anything. What one believes is their business. I trust that we all have needs and whatever they are, we should be able to satisfy them. In a theoretical sense, we (any of us) we can’t absolutely know anything for sure. I do not question or challenge René Descartes profound revelation (1637) “I think therefore I am.” That gem has a very high probability for its truth. But again, theoretically I allow for remote possibilities. Some ideas we embrace, others we accept with reservations and some of it we think to be absurd. It depends largely on our experience and what we make of it as well as the opinions of people whose views we respect and trust. Good or bad, peer pressure is is hard to resist. Still, if we don’t treat it as suspect then we leave ourselves open to pitfalls and blunders of all sorts. 

I've made these observations based my experience and what I make of it. Some of that comes vicariously via my peers and qualified by old age. As I see it from my perch, foolish old men are more reliably informed that foolish young men who simply do not see it coming.