Friendly advice I refuse to take

Friends,

Once a year — around our mutual birthdays — I have a long and prized phone call with a dear old (and getting older) friend. This year’s came yesterday.

One thing about dear old friends is they’ll tell you things about yourself no one else will tell you — stuff you probably already know but don’t want to admit.

My old friend didn’t disappoint yesterday.

“You’re getting up there,” he laughed.

“So are you, you old fart,” I laughed back.

We traded barbs and stories for awhile, and then his voice turned serious.

“You’re working too hard,” he said.

“What are you talking about?”

“I see your Substacks, your videos, podcast, interviews. It’s too much.”

“That’s utter bullsh*t,” I said. Then he went silent — which always puts me on the defensive. “What d’you want me to do — smell the roses? Take up the banjo? Run a marathon?”

“Bob, I’ve known you … how long?”

“Sixty-five years.” (Whenever he pulls this “How long have I known you” maneuver, he’s really getting serious.)

“Have I ever given you bad advice?”

“Yes, when you urged me to date Cindy Hawthorne.”

He laughed. “That was 63 years ago, beyond the statute of limitations.”

“I forgive you.”

Then he resumed his serious tone. “You’ve got to slow down. Stop being so f*cking productive.” And then, more gently: “You don’t have that many years left.”

At which point — I hate to admit it — I lost it.

“That’s exactly why I’m not slowing down! We’re in a national emergency! We’re —”

He interrupted. “I know, I know. Don’t insult my intelligence. Trump is a monster.”

“So all of us have to do whatever we can. For as long as we can.”

After a long pause, he said: “I think you’ll last longer if you slow down.”

That was when our conversation ended. I’m still smarting a bit from it.

The fact is, I’m doing what I do because — and as long as — I’m still able to.

And I work as hard as I do because you make it all worthwhile.

You read my daily missives and share them. You add your comments to them — creating some of the most thoughtful discussions anywhere on the internet. Some of you have been urging others to subscribe and lending your financial support to this effort.

You’ve been making use of the facts, arguments, and analyses I’ve offered. You’ve been writing your members of Congress. You’ve been actively supporting good candidates for public office who oppose the Trump regime. You’ve been marching, demonstrating, making good trouble. You’re boycotting firms and products that support the tyrant. You’re helping and protecting vulnerable people in your community.

You are part of the pro-democracy movement that gives my work meaning and purpose.

For this, I thank you with all my heart.