Let me be the first to congratulate you on this anniversary which means achieving the fabled third digit. No, not of the hand, but in the mathematical sense.
So, what does it mean? Well, it does impress the hell out of anyone who learns of it, and means you've made it through a century of recent world history: Warren Harding to Joe Biden and all in between; the ongoing struggle for Civil RIghts; the Great Depression; a pandemic; wars in Vietnam, Korea, the world, Afghanistan, Israel, etc.; medical miracles; a long marriage; political derangements; and a few other things. Just think about it. A wonder of events.
So now you embark on the next 100 years. There will be cures we can't even imagine now, CRISPR will create new means for alleviating genetic miscues, people will go to Mars, climate change will be a cataclysmic process, and no gas-powered cars will remain on the road, among the several things that will make our planet a different place. Let me know when these things happen.
But on a day such as this, it is probably best to noodle around the memory for fun moments and deeply meaningful events from the days before you had twins, to working in your parent's candy store, to world travel, to your medical career, to building frames for mom's paintings, to enjoying Inverness, to buying a bunch of Buicks before the BMW and finally Cadillacs, to running out of gas in a motorboat with your parents and us all on Tomales Bay at nightfall, to family get-togethers at home or with the Zizmors or with grandpa and grandma Banks, to driving across the country, to dinners at home, dinners at Ernie's in San Francisco, to moving from Regent Street to Snowden to Barrett to El Verano, to watching a whole lot of Perry Mason on television in black and white, to Texaco opera on the radio, to medical school graduations for two of your children, to the craziness of today's politics, to breakfasts of scrambled eggs with toast and bacon, to several other things, too.
Dad, I am proud of you taking life in, overcoming obstacles, and now even doing your near-daily stair climbing, and you taking great interest in my wife and children and me. I love our daily chats and even the challenges modern electronics pose for you. I am hoping to be able to give you a kiss and a hug really soon.
