Recently, I found out that I’m going to die.

Hang on, hang on…I’ll get to that in a second. I want you to read through this newsletter with your own mortality in mind, not mine (though maybe mine may help you.)

You see, time is weird. When my mother, Ginny Mansfield, was born, Abraham Lincoln had been dead less than 60 years. That new thought recently hit me as I played with time; it actually shocked me, as I looked at a comparison. When my grandson, Dax Roe, was born, John F. Kennedy had been dead less than 60 years. (In fact, this next month will be the 60th Anniversary of the Kennedy Assassination – November 22nd, 1963.)

Though 60 years is a long time in both cases - for all of us to consider - the reality is that days pass slowly and years speed by.

Whether you’re a 30+ year old facing your 1st college reunion or the mother of a 14-month-old toddler who today is racing along,(though only yesterday was on all fours, crawling at a snail’s pace.) Tempus fugit…Time flies. Reagan being shot, September 11th, 2001, the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion, the financial implosion of 2008, the recent deaths of celebrities and sports heroes or… Hamas’ unprovoked, cowardly attack and murder of civilian innocents on Oct 7th, 2023. These profound things stay with us and remind us that all is not right in the world, whether momentary or not.

It was with great interest, then, that I examined my own mortality this month. Because of a heart problem, I was referred as a patient to Cedars Sinai Hospital in LA. My recently-acquired Idaho heart doctor recommended that I visit one of the finest cardiology centers in the United States for them to take a deep-dive look at my ticker. For medical geeks, here’s how the professionals in LA put my condition. “He is diagnosed with left ventricular sarcoidosis. In addition, he has a gestational bicuspid valve and an aortic aneurysm. The left ventricle sarcoidosis has only recently been diagnosed. His disease is non-obstructive coronary heart disease.”

My new cardiologist at Cedars Sinai put me on a restricted sodium diet over a week ago. (I had to remind myself from an ancient chemistry class that sodium is salt.)

And I fully, more clearly realized that whether it’s this specific heart disease or something else…I am really going to die.

And it was LIBERATING! No kidding. Now, don’t get me wrong… Martin Luther King’s words rang out in my mind as I considered these new facts: “Longevity has its place, but I'm not concerned about that now.” And as a follower of Jesus, I’m not fearful of this obstacle, as well.

What I am, however, is thankful for this obstacle.

There are three things I want you to consider from my story for yourself. Three things that issue forth from my recent experience.

1. Quit pretending that you’re not getting older. The Law of gravity is indeed a law.
2. Think strategically, rather than tactically about your life. Logistics work well, every time.
3. Realize that we’re in a relay race, not a sprint, not even a marathon. The hand-off of the baton is everything.

Stop Pretending

Shakespeare said it well: “With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.” Sometimes mirth and laughter come during a bar room brawl. Sometimes, old wrinkles come with the simple expression and acceptance of sadness.

That’s the movies.

Reality is that there are times to just call on others who are younger to help, even for the initial actor who played James Bond.

Getting older doesn’t have to mean you’re getting weaker; it just means that each of us has to take a fierce inventory of what works and what doesn’t work in our lives TODAY. For example, jogging doesn’t work for me anymore. Biking does. And man, is it fun. (No, not those e-bikes, at least not yet! Ha!)

In my fierce inventory of things that matter, I include friends. In my own life, as you’re reading this newsletter, I’ll be with Susan at the US Military Academy this week for our 45th Class Reunion with three hundred and six of my friends – my Class of 1978 classmates. The Law of Gravity that my classmates and I studied in physics class at West Point is real and applicable to all parts of life. Things fall, things fail, things break. And they HAVE to do that. It is the LAW that 32 ft/second/second allows us all to have other parts of our lives that come next: seasons, sports, life and death. There are no accidents – there ARE however, unpleasant events that occur. I rely on Shakespeare again to capture my class’s version of Henry V’s speech to his band of brothers. Unpleasant? Yes. Needful? Heck yes.

Stop pretending that these tough times are not supposed to enter the airspace of your life. They are all simply problems; solve them and get on with life.

Strategy vs Tactics

The supply-chain problems that beset the world after March 13th, 2020 had everything to do with the pre-COVID calm and supposed economic belief that nothing could strategically happen that would have global impact, shy of a third world war. Now, supply-chain strategic planning is one of the top 5 duties of C-suites everywhere according to The World Economic Forum.

That is as it should be. Strategy is so very important.

However, the reactive planning process of tactical maneuvering in business, military, economics and personal life that existed before COVID now has a far sharper point placed at the end of the corporate planning pencil. And just who are the ones sharpening those pencils today? Young people are. Skinny-jeans-wearing Millennial world-changers. Gifted people with gifted perspectives - men and women who are just now beginning to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders.

And again, that is as it should be. It’s their turn. Logistics work very well, every time and in every season – they just may look a bit different now. This Forbes article is outstanding on the subject.

It’s a relay race, not a sprint

As a business coach, I LOVE working with young men and young women as they prepare for their place in the sun – running companies, running education, running for office. It’s a blast.

As so many young people now come across my path, I tend to no longer “name drop” people with whom I have worked – for key reasons. The people are gone, the issues are over, the products are no longer in the marketplace. Young people don’t know Howard Jarvis & Paul Gann, Helen Chenoweth and Newt Gingrich, Super Balls, bicycle banana seats or Promise Keepers. It’s like my generation’s example of whether we know anything about Rudolf Valentino, William Howard Taft and Pullman Cars. “What? Nah, never heard of ‘em…”

Given that’s the case, I’d rather do a hand-off of the baton based on principles rather than personalities. As I grow older and the relay race hand-off presents itself, I want to stress truths that have stood the test – the full and violent test - of time. I want to hand those off as one runner does to the next runner. Sometimes a baton is dropped, but the principles always carry the day.

The handoff is indeed vital.

So is the summary:

• Get older and love who you are. The world around you needs you to be a mentor. Be one.
• Strategically move forward and don’t get bogged down in tactics – let those you’ve hired deal on that level. And train them up to be strategic.
• Be on the team, but don’t BE the team. Hand off as many things as you can to younger people who need experience.

And my health?

I opened this newsletter with the shocking statement that I’m dying. I am… so are you. We’re all growing, sustaining, advancing and aging. Ultimately, we’re all dying. Our game will end.

Every NFL or College Football team knows that – as people, we just have to know where each of us is – which quarter? Halftime? Or are we in the 2-minute warning? (My guess is I’m in the 4th Quarter, loving every play!) Remember that low sodium diet that one of the heart docs said I should embrace? I’m doing it and feeling fantastic, losing weight, staying away from foods that will shorten my life expectancy. No operation is yet needed. The docs want to watch my progress. (So do I!) Susan’s cooking is outstanding. I’m learning about health things that have always been distant to me. They no longer are.

The key is, in a healthy way, to grab the years you and I DO have and realize another generation will be coming forward from behind you and me and will advance past us. And it’s a very good thing.

Returning back to President John Kennedy, he had a most prescient comment to make about youth six decades ago. It’s worth listening to once again.

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More later,

Den

Den’s Latest and Greatest

• A very different take on the Kennedy Assassination is out there – What if there WERE two weapons used in the JFK Assassination but one was NOT from the Grassy Knoll? I saw this documentary and it blew my mind. It’s available on Amazon Prime.
• Take a look at Billy Graham’s book Death and the Life After.
• I have a new book coming out soon (Empires of Dirt) that begins with the Kennedy Assassination and asks the question “What if it was halted/interrupted/stopped?” Take a quick read for free of the first teaser chapter of the book.

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