The 50 Year Dash

Book excerpt: The 50 Year Dash is a wonderful book of reflections on everything that's part of life at fifty: looking at aches and pains as a growth industry, and seeing the constant onslaught of new pain relievers as a new version of the British invasion of rock groups in the 1960s; finding that the world is no longer sufficiently quiet, and that you're the one yelling "Turn that down!"; realizing you're older than James Bond ever was; hearing yourself say, "The fruit plate looks good," and meaning it; understanding that the one thing that seems to be going away from you the fastest is that first-time feeling--first job, first house, first kiss--and knowing that the best thing you can do for yourself is to find ways to keep finding those feelings again and again. Between now and the year 2014, seventy-seven million American men and women--most of the baby boom generation--will turn fifty. That's about ten thousand birthdays per day. The 50 Year Dash is the perfect book for every single one of them.