Sixty-Something: Pursuing Destiny

Some folks believe they are destined to be great or do great things. Others feel they are always the brightest in the room, and those who truly are feel the pulse of destiny. Sprinkled across the Hamptons are many great high achievers. All successful lives carry the weight of destiny.

The settlers of the Hamptons risked all-natural safety to sail primitively from the old world to the new world. They threw caution to the winds to reach a world of their dreams and their making. Oddly enough, their new world of possibilities is now a trophied “Gold Coast of luxury.” Today’s Hamptons include a status symbol world of mega homes often reached by private jets and helicopters.

When late in life, we old sixty-something and beyond, folks usually know our destinies. Over time, they have been revealed. Throughout life, we are dealt various hands—sometimes aces high, others deuces. Amazingly, some of us navigate through these stakes, blinded to where we are going. Yet, we go and arrive somewhere we never dreamed of being, and yet here we are. Others have always known where they wanted to go and, having mapped it all out in their minds, either have arrived or are still on the path to get there.

East-end historian Henry Hedges spent his late life telling the stories of how the Hamptons came to be. He witnessed and chronicled events like the great Sag Harbor fires, the effects of the Civil War, and eventually, the wealth the good fertile lands of the east end created. He was born when James Monroe (1817) was President and died (1911) during the administration of President William Howard Taft. Hedges watched the first train tracks laid down on the east end and the first gasoline cars and trucks. At the same time, when American history was just beginning to be written, historian George Bancroft (1800-1891) termed the phrase “manifest destiny.” He believed that the new United States of America was bound for a new greatness built on the belief in the possibility of social elevation by literally raising oneself up by his bootstraps. Bancroft spoke of God’s hand in all of this.

The history of this country is always being rewritten. Trends come and go. Somehow, as history is being made, we often miss important things. Two-thirds of today’s U.S. population was not born when American men walked on the moon. The world stopped on July 20th, 1969, to watch Neil Armstrong’s first steps. I consider that event the most important of my lifetime and an achievement to be remembered for thousands of years. Believe it or not, the LEM (Lunar Landing Module) spacecraft that the world watched safely land on and then blast off the moon was built in Riverhead.

There is only so much time in the calendars of our individual lives. I have been fortunate to spend the last two decades breathing fresh Atlantic Ocean air and sailing the winds of the bays of the east end of Long Island. Perhaps my destiny was not to achieve great things but to appreciate the great things surrounding me daily. Being able to stop, see, and enjoy the natural beauty of the East End is a gift. I love seeing Bald Eagles and Osprey soar and hunt. I also observed dolphins, whales, and even sharks at sea. I’ve seen the glowing bright light of full moons while sailing. We all have a defined measure of east-end sunrises and sunsets to observe until we are no longer. We all live in the now. We all are still pursuing our destiny.