TIAGAIG

Many years ago, sitting in a luxurious private dining room at 21, and participating enthusiastically in a black tie dinner for my roommate who was the scion of a famous Wall St. family, I puffed on my cigar (I don't smoke.) warmed my cognac and thought, if I was thinking at all, TIAGAIG, this is as good as it gets. Today, I think TIAGAIG when my family gets together for hamburgers in the park. The intervening years have taught me a great deal about "as good as it gets." And so when I read that almost 50% of this year's brightest and best of Ivy League colleges are going straight to Wall St. to "securitize things that don't exist" I get a sickish feeling in the pit of my stomach. Maybe it's still that cigar. Forget the fact that my roommate is long divorced, his famous firm absorbed by another giant Wall St company which has, in turn, been swallowed up in a fire sale and that the Street now resembles a casino for the rich rather than an opportunity to own your share of America, There are now so many threats to feeling good that an hour in the park breaking bread with people whom you love and who love you, seems almost like the religious experience it once was. TIAGAIG squared is when the park visit comes at a time when no one in the family is desperately sick, struggling or in harm's way. They are rare and marvelous events.





As one moves through the checkout line, it becomes increasingly clear that recognition, applause and grandiosity are less satisfying than really simple stuff. Old goats like me are less responsive to maitre'ds who know my name than to someone who passes on the street with a smile that says "I bet you were fun 100 years ago." We're not looking for gavels, framed resolutions and the like, but rather the feeling that maybe we were useful somehow and didn't hurt anyone much in the process. There's a certain disdain now for all the boardroom games and pretenses and even a little contempt for the performers. The final arbiter awaits after all.





At this point, most of us have discovered how to handle life's slings and arrows. Nothing can be done about the pains of ill health, but an immunity has accumulated for most of the other stuff, especially if you're blessed with a strong hook up to your higher power. Did the Great Recession mess up you're plans? Too bad. Moses didn't make it into the promised land, six presidents struggled in vain a national health plan and Gauguin never sold a painting. Such disappointments don't matter as much as hamburgers in the park.