It was the most notable presidential birthday since Marilyn Monroe cooed a seductive “Happy birth-day, Mr. Pres-si-dent” to John F. Kennedy in 1962 in Madison Square Garden.
Up the street from where that happy event took place, President Clinton celebrated his birthday Aug. 18 in Radio City Music Hall. The president turned 50 the next day and he was taking a generation with him.
Fathered by a returning war veteran immediately after World War II, Bill Clinton is on the leading edge of the Baby Boom. Crossing the half-century mark is a big deal for any generation. Just yesterday you were qualifying for your first scout merit badge. Suddenly, you’re now qualified for AARP eligible to join the American Association of Retired Persons. The passing of the 50-year milestone is particularly big for us boomers because of the great conceit with which we deluded ourselves in the 1960s, the turbulent decade in which the boomers first came into college age and adulthood. If was the conceit of believing on a deep, visceral level that we would never grow old.
Now we must face a different truth. At 40, we could fudge around about whether 40 was really “old.” At 50, the fudge is running out. Suddenly the generation famously known for the phrase, “Don’t trust anyone over 30” is saying, Yes, there is life after 50, if you do it right.
Supporting this theme, it was significant to me that some delightfully sprightly boomers dominated the stage at Clinton’s birthday bash. There was Jon Bon Jovi, Smokey Robinson, Carly Simon, Kenny Rogers and Murphy Brown’s favorite, Aretha Franklin.
More significantly, there was Tony Bennett, a star of the 1940s and ’50s who launched a second career with a clever video on MTV a few years ago, instantly making him a role model for late-bloomer boomers.
So Bill Clinton could afford to have a good time at his birthday party. Age 50 is a time when when most people begin to feel the bitter reality of life’s limitations. Clinton is lucky enough to be turning 50 at a time when 50 has never been younger. He gets the wisdom that comes with experience and still has enough youthfulness to enjoy it.
Four years ago we boomers were shocked when one of our own was elected president. What a relief it was to know that he was only the third youngest, behind Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, to be inaugurated into the job. Now we can appreciate his gravitas, that he has learned better than to parade his fat thighs out in public in running shorts. We can appreciate the way age, though it brings wrinkles and bald spots, also brings wisdom and patience.
If the generation that questioned everything has anything to offer now it is in its raising the question of aging itself: What is “old?” It is a question of particular significance this year as one of history’s youngest presidents is challenged by one of history’s oldest presidential candidates. Bob Dole’s age is the factor everyone is reluctant to talk about in polite company, yet everybody thinks about. Dole, 73, received a big boost in the polls after he showed at the Republican National Convention that he does have energy, a compelling personal story and something in his head that vaguely resembles a vision for America.
But he sounded old-fashioned. I don’t remember much from his acceptance speech other than the refrain “I remember,” as he recalled an America that was a better place, a place of “tranquillity, faith and confidence in action.”
Putting aside for the moment the incongruities of using such glowing terms to describe Russell, Kan., during the Great Depression, Dole spent a lot of time describing the past. He spent little time painting a picture of the future. Where, one wonders, does he expect to go with this grumpy, old man act? What, one wonders, does he have to say to the MTV and Internet generation about the next century?
Watch for Clinton and his fellow Democrats to try to fill that gap at next week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Don’t expect them to replay Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow” very much (The Clinton-Gore team just about wore out that fine song’s welcome four years ago through overplaying), but do expect the song’s sentiments to be restated loudly, clearly and repeatedly.
This, then, could be the greatest choice between generational images that Americans have seen since 1960, when some voters had a hard time believing Richard Nixon was only four years older than Jack Kennedy. He sounded and seemed older.
Increasingly I hear boomers say age is only a state of mind, that, “If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” In this election year, we’ll see how much it matters.
