The Fourth Quarter

Two of Williamsburg High School’s greatest basketball players from the “Golden Age” of boys’ basketball during the 1960s recently reminded me that we are now in the fourth quarter of our lives. The first of these had just had a stent installed to help with his blood flow. He said, “We do what we have to do so that we can do what we want to do. After all, we’re in the fourth quarter now.”

The man has exercised religiously his entire life and has eaten healthy foods. He has never abused himself with tobacco or alcohol, yet he needed the stent.

The second, my brother-in-law, Bruce Houck, arguably...