Seeing Further
Whenever I finish a blog story, I try to give myself a head start on the next story by creating a template and a title to get myself going. I usually write to suit that title and only occasionally find myself writing something for which a better title is required. Having just finished writing a story this morning and just finished Round 8 with my big life insurance carrier (I sent them a list of questions to help me clarify my policy account information…what a shame that their obfuscating mentality requires that sort of digging to get at the financial truth), I decided to give myself that titling head start. As I sat here looking out to the north through my office window, I can see both sets of mountains I usually see on a clear day, the nearby San Jacintos and the further north and west San Gabriels. Both have lovely and bright snow caps on this sunny morning. But there in the distance between the two I spy another range that I have never noticed before. It is quite a bit more distant and it may be that its so far away that its never been clear enough to see. But today, with the bright sun, the clear sky and the snow cap, it is visible. The map tells me that it is the San Bernardino Mountains that surround Big Bear, about 72 miles due north of me. San Jacinto (49 miles away) stands at 10,833 feet and Mount San Antonio in the San Gabriels, at 10,066 feet in altitude is 101 miles to the north-northwest and yet it looks somehow bigger than San Gorgonio Peak in the San Bernardino range that stands at 11,499 feet. I’m sure there is an optical scientific explanation for all of that, but I am unable to explain it from my brief encounter with 9th grade earth science. What I do know is that today, I am seeing further and more clearly than usual.
What’s on my mind is that I have to go in a few hours to the gym for my weekly training session. I have, fortunately, gotten over my muscle soreness from my self-directed gym workout on Friday, so I should be good to go otherwise. I also have ageism on my mind, not for myself necessarily, but based on a comment sent to my by my friend Kevin. he sent me a piece on Berkshire Hathaway and the fact that Warren Buffett does not continence any diversity or inclusion standards for his parent company board of directors. He has three women and several minorities on the board but boldly states that they are there due to their long-term commitment to the investment principles of Berkshire Hathaway and NOT because of their color, race, gender or age. In fact, Berkshire has more older folks on their board than most boards and they have no age limit. Of course they also have two of Buffett’s children, which must mean that diversity in terms of nepotism is perfectly acceptable. Hence, Charlie Munger, who just died at 99 years old and Warren himself at 93 years old have never been aged out of their board seats. I found many anomalies in this article about the Berkshire board. First, Buffett may not adhere to DEI principles on his parent board, but he does encourage his various companies to adhere to those principles, most likely because he knows that if he ever wants to sell them, they would need to be compliant by the standards of most potential acquirers. That strikes me as very ironic in its pragmatism.
The other thing I could not avoid mentioning to Kevin is that he seems to have no problem with a 93 year old Buffett running Berkshire but he has nothing but criticism for Joe Biden running the country at age 82, calling him out as being too old for the job at every opportunity. Kevin’s rejoinder to my comment about the hypocrisy was that Buffett performs for his investors and helps them achieve their goals, so he is not too old. My comment back was that Biden equally has performed amazingly well by any presidential standards and that he too has served his citizens well and has helped them (regardless of party) to achieve their goals on a collective basis. This did nothing but frustrate Kevin. He is prepared to accept that Biden has “done fine”, but says that he cannot continue because he’s too old and that I am simply in denial.
He’s right. I deny that Joe Biden is too old to lead the country. I too am of the opinion that the guy deserves to retire and that a younger person to run the complexities of the country and world might well be a better thing for us and would make everyone feel better, but all the value of wisdom and experience that causes people to quietly march behind Warren Buffett is the same sort of wisdom and experience that we should be valuing in a president. In fact, my friend Kevin has inadvertently given me my new go-to comment to anyone who tells me that Joe Biden is too old for re-election in 2024.
Kevin also then told me that our mutual , who recently turned 80 has sold his motorcycle and is, effectively, retiring from the sport. that conflicts with what I had heard that he plans to ride Bhutan, which is a rugged and difficult (due mostly to altitude, but also road conditions and general lack of overall development) as anyplace anyone can ride. This reminded me that sooner or later we all have to face up to the inevitable gaps in our individual abilities and what is required to stay safe. People are happy to dedicate billions of dollars to Warren Buffett’s leadership and spend time not worrying about whether he is too old, but worrying instead about what they will do when he can longer lead his company (physically or mentally). I am not a fan of ageistic thinking. We need to all admit that the age when one is “too old” to do anything is very subjective and circumstantial.
I took a motorcycle ride just the other day. I had more trouble getting my helmet Bluetooth rebooted and working so that I could listen to tunes while I rode, rather than any difficulty managing the bike of the coordination needed to safely ride a motorcycle. I know that on our Arizona/New Mexico ride last year I got a bit muscle sore with the riding in the heat, but I am convinced that day rides are certainly no problem for me and I am even planning to ride Nova Scotia in September on a rented bike for a week. It’s not a particularly long ride in terms of distances we will cover each day, but it will be on a smaller rented bike than I’m used to and could well be in inclement weather for all or some of the ride. I do not consider that to be an inordinate risk for me to take, but I am also sure that I might feel after the ride that I don’t want to do that ever again. I guess what I am saying is that I feel like I will know it when it is time to hang up my riding spurs.
Out of respect for Joe Biden and his long career serving his country and especially the path he is trying to put us as well as his accomplishments to date, I have to give him the benefit of the doubt that he too will know when it is time for him to hang up his spurs. Four years is a long time and an especially long time when you are 82, but then again, they say time passes more quickly the older you are, so maybe four years for Joe will go by without incident and he will perform admirably for the full term. I think if we look hard into the future, as I have this morning, we can see further and better than we can if we fall to the stereotype of ageism.