Man, I Still Got It!

I was thumbing, as is my habit and pleasure, my well-worn Penguin Classic volume of Cicero's De Senctute, having devoured the requisite episodes of Rawhide, Wagon Train and Have Gun Will Travel featured on the magnificently programed Encore Western Channel, available through ATT Universe plan for that Saturday morning. 

I was about to jot notes on this salient passage by Tully which are touchstones of counsel for semi-retired roues and cads like myself.
Age and attention to virtue are twin goads.  The body's mechanical/ chemical ignition systems wane and the knowledge that eternity's candle is leading the manly will more than appeals of sirens and nymphs to that goatishness which dominated so many decades and charmed pretty eyes do make for changes. Thus,

The third charge against old age is that it LACKS SENSUAL PLEASURES. What a splendid service does old age render, if it takes from us the greatest blot of youth! Listen, my dear young friends, to a speech of Archytas of Tarentum, among the greatest and most illustrious of men, which was put into my hands when as a young man I was at Tarentum with Q. Maximus. “No more deadly curse than sensual pleasure has been inflicted on mankind by nature, to gratify which our wanton appetites are roused beyond all prudence or restraint. It is a fruitful source of treasons, revolutions, secret communications with the enemy. In fact, there is no crime, no evil deed, to which the appetite for sensual pleasures does not impel us. Fornications and adulteries, and every abomination of that kind, are brought about by the enticements of pleasure and by them alone. Intellect is the best gift of nature or God

That virtuous notion considered and the fact that television commercial marketing featuring my contemporary males riding around in vintatge pick-up trucks and pouring AquaFina into over-heated radiators, or doing hot-licks on a Fender Stratocaster with the old garage band gang, talking about Low T, or E-D or complete Johnson meltdown, do the falling leaves of autumn and memories of dalliances past spark the re-play button of loves lost and pleasures found.

Having noted antique Cicero's valorization of Low T and failure to launch being occasion for reflection on higher things, my reveries were jolted akimbo by the intrusive ring of my land-line phone and it was not a Quinnipiac Poll, AmVets, or Window Replacement telemarketers.

It was the purringly husky voice of a gorgeous ex-girlfriend who called 'out-of-the-blue' to see if I was still around.

We lost track of time, chatting about the wild, romantic times we used to enjoy together.

I couldn't believe it when she asked if I'd be interested in meeting up and rekindling a little of that "old magic."

"Wow!" I was flabbergasted.

"I don't know if I could keep pace with you now," I said, "I'm a bit older and a bit greyer and balder than when you last saw me. Plus I don't really have the energy I used to  have."

She just giggled and said she was sure I would "rise to the challenge."

"Yeah," I said. "Just so long as you don't mind a waistline that's a few inches wider these days!   The ravages of Dunlap's Disease. Not to mention my total lack of muscle tone . . . everything is sagging, my teeth are a bit yellowed and I'm developing jowls like a Great Dane!"

She laughed and told me to stop being so silly.

She teased me saying that tubby, gray haired, older men were cute, and she was sure I would still be a great lover.

Anyway, she giggled and said, "I've put on a few pounds myself!"

" Sorry, Chubs, not interested!" 

I hung up the phone, placed my volume of De Senctute back under the pile of books and checked the ice box for that last piece of Key Lime pie! 

OOOOOOooooo Lawman with John Russell as Marshall Dan Troop starts at 1 PM!


 HT -Max Weismann -philosopher and roue

De Senectute - McCain's the Guy!

Now this man conducted wars with all the spirit of youth when he was far advanced in life, and by his persistence gradually wearied out Hannibal, when rioting in all the confidence of youth. How brilliant are those lines of my friend Ennius on him!

For us, down beaten by the storms of fate,
One man by wise delays restored the State.
Praise or dispraise moved not his constant mood,
True to his purpose, to his country's good!
Down ever-lengthening avenues of fame
Thus shines and shall shine still his glorious name.

M.T. Cicero on John McCain - sorry - I meant Quintus Fabius Maximus, an old Roman lion who saved the Repulic in time of war.


Michael Cooper raises the age and health issue on John McCain's Presidential hopes.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/25/us/politics/25mccain.html?ei=5065&en=003772be4242ec70&ex=1188619200&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

Senator John McCain was fielding questions at a town-hall-style meeting earlier this month in Ankeny, Iowa, when a woman raised her hand and asked him, “from one white head to another white head,” why he wanted to be president in such troubled times.

“You’re getting pretty old!” she said, after praising his long service to the country. “And it’s such a hard job!”

Mr. McCain deadpanned, to laughter, “I’m sorry I called on you.”

John McCain has the capacity to understand the needs of his country and help lead, over the enjoyment of quiet days usually given over to folks in their seventies - usually. How many American voters with white or fleshy domes have been called upon to bail-out their children, granchildren financially or return to the company from which they had recently been retired and put it back on a war-footing for commerce? How many retirees are taking in the children of their grandchildren and raising them to be solid citizens, because the onus of parenthood was too much on the MTV generation? How many experienced veterans of Vietnam have gone into the classroom to help give kids a real education? How many retired police and fire professionals have gone back 'into service' as consulants in Post -9/11 America ? Quite a few. Just outside my cubicle, passed a retired University of Chicago Biophysicist who is up-dating Leo High School's Science Department.


Cicero, a brilliant but oily politician, had the genius to recognize the best in other men and women; though he understood his own deficiencies:

Again what vigilance, what profound skill did he show in the capture of Tarentum! It was indeed in my hearing that he made the famous retort to Salinator, who had retreated into the citadel after losing the town: "It was owing to me, Quintus Fabius, that you retook Tarentum." Quite so," he replied with a laugh; "for had you not lost it, I should never have recovered it." Nor was he less eminent in civil life than in war. In his second consulship, though his colleague would not move in the matter, he resisted as long as he could the proposal of the tribune C. Flaminius to divide the territory of the Picenians and Gauls in free allotments in defiance of a resolution of the Senate. Again, though he was an augur, he ventured to say that whatever was done in the interests of the State was done with the best possible auspices, that any laws proposed against its interest were proposed against the auspices. I was cognisant of much that was admirable in that great man, but nothing struck me with greater astonishment than the way in which he bore the death of his son-a man of brilliant character and who had been consul. His funeral speech over him is in wide circulation, and when we read it, is there any philosopher of whom we do not think meanly? Nor in truth was he only great in the light of day and in the sight of his fellow-citizens; he was still more eminent in private and at home. What a wealth of conversation! What weighty maxims! What a wide acquaintance with ancient history! What an accurate knowledge of the science of augury! For a Roman, too, he had a great tincture of letters. He had a tenacious memory for military history of every sort, whether of Roman or foreign wars. And I used at that time to enjoy his conversation with a passionate eagerness, as though I already divined, what actually turned out to be the case, that when he died there would be no one to teach me anything.

There is so much that an experienced leader can give to the Republic, especially in time of War. John McCain is that leader. Give Cicero a look and give McCain your support; he has mine.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------