During this seven year period, I will move through most of my 7th decade of life, my sixties, toward my 70th birthday

I imagine that it is in the early to mid-sixties that one can no longer think of oneself as "middle-aged", and somehow one must confront the fact that one is, or is rapidly becoming, simply old. How will that feel? I imagine, sitting here in 2003, that these might be hard years.

On the other hand, with any luck some grandchildren might be making their appearance in these years (my daughter will be 22 to 29 years old, my son 25 to 32 years old), and who knows what other wonders life will hold?