I won the lottery!

David age 9 months

I won the lottery—and—guest what?—you won it too.

Think I’m crazy?

I know something most of you don’t.

So why am I so smart?

Today is my 70^th birthday.

There’s something that has happened to me in the past few months that will happen to you one day.

Even though I’m in great health–a jolt hit me that life is limited.

When I was young I tried to determine when someone turns old, I decided that 40 was that number.

Of course, when I turned 40 I changed my mind and quickly upped the age to something far away—70.

Well, here I am at 70—and I can’t kid myself any more.  There’s no way I can fool myself into thinking 70 is middle aged unless I plan to live to 140.

All of us have been told life is short, but we pay no attention.  However, there comes a time when reality comes crashing down.

Now let’s get back to the “lottery” thing.

There are a lot of topics I could write about on my 70^th birthday–since I’m now old and wise.

I could talk about the lessons I’ve learned from life, but I want to concentrate on my biggest revelation.

The most important thing that has impacted my life is that I was born in America during the 20th century.

I am Jewish and I was born in 1943.  If I had been born in Eastern Europe where many Jews lived, I would have likely been thrown into a gas chamber.

There are 7 billion people in the world and only 320 million live in the U.S.  I don’t know how many people have been born since the beginning of time, but only a small fraction made their debut during my lifetime.

I contend that all of us reading this blog have beaten incredible odds and won the lottery by living in the United States at this particular time.

Ronald Reagan called it a “divine plan that placed this great continent between two oceans to be sought out by those who were possessed of an abiding love of freedom.”

We may complain about our America from time to time, but I don’t think any of us are threatening to leave.

I celebrate being born in America 70 years ago today.

Yes, I won the lottery.  Happy birthday, me!

Editor’s note:  Wasn’t I a pretty baby?

David Sher is a co-founder of Buzz12 Advertising. You can read more of his posts by looking for the “David Sher Posts” category in the sidebar of Buzz12’s website.