I dunno about you but I know about myself. After the military, which was truly fascinating for a few years until I saw a great country, a great institution and great people perverted to mean, cruel and greedy uses and felt dirty. But that's not the story.

After that, for a while I followed the path of least resistance, doing that which may have not held much interest for me but which did pay the bills.

Then I started doing what was interesting, trying to be the best I could at it, and did very well. And I can say the last 20 or 25 years I would have paid to do what I was doing.

And now, as I get older, I find myself having to struggle to maintain an interest in very much. I think the reason is that my concentration span is fading, which almost rules out new things, and the older things I've learned are quite enough, thank you.

I have a couple of friends with whom I maintain a close contact, one a magazine editor and fishing guide and the other a defense attorney who specializes in capital cases. I enjoy kibitzing to the extent I can, and following their progress and problems to the extent I can.

And many things take too much energy anymore for what I get out of them.

As I got older I learned to like what I was doing, a conscious effort which yielded positive results.