Categories: Out Among Humans

Why are you here?

Just Your Average 68-Year-Old College Freshman


“Why are you here?”

It was a perfectly reasonable question for a college student to ask a lab partner two generations her senior. My answer was a smile. Depending on your age, you may understand what she wouldn’t have.

After The New Yorker said that I’m too old to do cartoons for them—after two meetings in their Times Square offices —I paused to take stock. I needed deadlines to meet, details to sweat, someone to notice if I got things right or wrong. I was hungry to engage. I wanted to consume knowledge rather than feed it to others. I needed something substantial to do. I needed to know if I’m still in working order. The good news, I am.

Pat Shiplett

Share
Published by
Pat Shiplett

Recent Posts

Afghan picnic

Out Among HumansIt was as much a sacrament as a picnic for the Afghans once…

2 weeks ago

Boys with Toy Guns

The men of their generation grew up bracing for a fight. They would learn soon…

4 weeks ago

Lincoln Inaugural Address

At the Lincoln MemorialLincoln’s words were etched in stone so they couldn’t be erased from…

1 month ago

Maarten Tollenaar

People at a coffee shopThe Dutch visitor speaks the King’s English with a brogue that…

2 months ago

sumo

They weren’t dog people. They weren’t cat, gerbil or goldfish people either. They were simply…

3 months ago

D.J. with fascist sign

People at a coffee shopDictators can intimidate the courts, institutions of learning and the free…

3 months ago