When this column is first published, Wednesday, Jan. 25 I will have turned 60 years old. I gotta’ say, 60 feels pretty easy, if only I have forgotten all the rough stuff from the last 59 years. So, I got that goin’ for me.

I received three emails of interest this week, that through a mastery of the skills I have honed, lo these many years, I will connect. (You can thank me later.)

Email #1

Choo, choo! Rushing into 2023 was the headline of my first column of this calendar year. In that column I opined on resolutions (and yes, I am still drinking more water as I resolved) and about getting a cold a week before Christmas. The cold laid me out, so I missed hanging out with family on the holiday. That column led to Dr. Shakil Khan of Orion, to send me this email.

(Don), In healthcare, we call it ‘Aging.’
I find your columns interesting and read them in the Lake Orion Review. They are funny but also educational. You write very well.
I laughed when I read the current one talking about your health issues. Unfortunately we all go through that because the immunity, together with the memory and everything else declines.
As a retired physician and now 80, I can relate to it.
I now operate a vocational school and teach hundreds of seminars on each health condition/disease. Please visit our website for more info. It is especially designed for people going through the changes – the aging process.

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Everybody is jumping on me for aging! Thanks, Doc. I went to the website for the American Academy of International Education and found it intriguing. I also like the tagline for that website, Your School of LifeLong Learning. Being an “old” guy, I still do believe in learning something new all the time. It’s one reason I still love my job after almost 38 years. Getting to talk to people, many times for the first and only time, I learn of them, their lives and interests.

If I were to give advice (and I don’t like to), I would suggest to the younger of you readers: never stop learning, never be afraid of being wrong (just admit when you are) and keep your ears and eyes open for new challenges.

Email #2

Young and impressionable = old and impressionable was the headline of last week’s gem of a Don’t Rush Me column. I actually think I have waited my entire career to pen that son of a gun, and I think it turned out as a dandy. (It was about the impending “rat invasion” of Michigan that is to take place this week, according to the “Pest Dude.” That column pushed Haley Hanes from the Clarkston area to write to me.

Don, There is an old saying, “That which you resist, persists! That which you fight gets stronger.” Poor Don, give up your “rat phobia” and adopt a rat of your own. Maybe a descendant of one of your kid’s pack? Love is the ONLY answer to the world’s problems! Just say’n.

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I responded to Haley, thusly, “Thanks, Haley. I agree, love is the answer . . . and my column is my therapy. I write ‘em to get rid of my anxieties!”

Email #3

Is an email from way up Oxford way. I cannot write the subject line down, nor can I share much of the email. But, I can share the opening line.

“OK Rush, you want to do something good?”

And, that’s about that, I think that is all I can share directly.

The bottom line, to paraphrase Jay W., is (and I tend to agree) a store is selling in the same aisle, on opposite sides of each other, children’s dental hygiene stuff on one side and on the other adult, er-ah . . . how do I write this delicately . . . how about this: on the other side of the children’s dental hygiene items the store is selling, in every color of the rainbow, stuff/aides for adult loving.

When I was younger, say when I turned 50 years old (see picture) I don’t think I would have ever received such an email, and I probably wouldn’t know how to respond. But, now that I am 10 years old and much, much wiser I figured it out. Who-ha, to turning 60!

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Send your comments to the 60-year-old Rush via email, DontRushDon@gmail.com

  don rush, don’t rush me