You Know You’re Getting Old When…You Outlive Your Country’s Visionary

September 19, 2006 - 3:33 PM by Allison

David Bogner at Treppenwitz is doing his best to avoid mid-life crisis. And he was doing OK until he came across this newspaper article.

It was about how Theodore Herzl’s children are going to be reburied near their father in Jerusalem in keeping with the terms of his will. All very heart-warming… but as the article went on to provide a little background info for the reader, it mentioned that he had died in 1904… at the age of 44!

That can’t be right… I’m 45!

They can’t be talking about the same Theodore Herzl… the father of modern Zionism. I grew up with pictures of him. He was this elderly man with a huge, imposing black beard:

… and apparently I’m a full year older than he was when he died.

Great. Just great.

In less time than I’ve had on this earth, Herzl had managed to create the blueprint for a modern Jewish state, and was a household name around the world.

I work in relative obscurity… and my secretary can’t be bothered to remember how I drink my coffee.

I’m feeling old.