What were the key moments in your life?

By Donald A. Collins | 26 January 2026
Church and State

(Photo by Anukrati Omar on Unsplash)

At almost 95 if one is still mentally functional, it becomes particularly fascinating to see images of the past flash before you as you passed various ages.

My contention is that each phase affords the life traveler the unique chance to practice for the next phase.

it’s easy for some to pick a high point. Painting the Sistine chapel, winning in a major athletic event, but even there it’s probably hard to pick exactly a high point particularly if you have multiple high points.

We less immortals might find it slightly easier, but even so as we move from phase to phase of our life, we could claim in each an event or more that fit into the category of high points.

So each phase beginning, perhaps with elementary school, you seem to be practicing for the future and as you go along, that practice can be confusing. Some people are lucky enough to know instinctively what they wish to do or become. Most people do not.

Thus, in my case, looking backwards, I can see the stages for which I practiced as constant, high points too numerous to select one or even 10.

In short, we have been practicing life at each phase and now as we come to the end, we can be happier or sad about what we have done.

All of us whoever reached old age have had numerous high points and certainly low points.

My advice to those who have aged in reasonable good health?

I simply choose to be thankful that the process has spared me the devastations that come with physical or mental in capacity. In the brief time left for me, I would wish only to leave a trail of kindness and empathy with everyone I meet.

So that in the end, I can feel that my high point came from having practiced for this final making that the high point of my life.

OK hello there you are come right in absolutely thank you thank you I look forward to your help but then I sit here without bothering you.

Finding the Kirk mate is a primary objective, whether you be straight or gay.

In my case, I was straight, but knew nothing about women until I was lucky to have some on the job training which subsequently amounted to having three children and working my way into jobs that finally excited and fulfilled me.

But I blame my good luck on the women in my life at that time we’re treated so unequally in America that in retrospect, I am ashamed at my bad attitude and the facts of the treatment.

Now the atmosphere has changed and we see in neutral women making careers outside the home, but somehow I am constantly amazed at their ability to juggle having children and having fulfilling careers.

Unfortunately, my first two choices were with women who died young. The first from smoking the second with heart problems.

Both offered me their full hearts and commitment, and certainly or vital in the formation of who I ultimately became.

Meeting my third wife, while engaged in my career was for particularly fortuitous since both of us were committed to the same issues and the fact that we were both in our 60s came to both of us as a complete surprise, but it turned out that we have the most fulfilling love affair of our life, and thus I guess would have to be identified as the most important event in my life.

Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Los Angeles, CA, has spent over 60 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of 15 books: “From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”, “Trump Becoming Macbeth: Will our democracy survive?”, “We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”, “What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”, “Vote”, “Can Homo Sapiens Survive?”, “Will Choice and Democracy Win?”, “Can Our U.S. Survive 8 Plus Billion of Us”, “Economic Growth: A Cancer on all Earthly Life”, “On the Precipice of Political Disaster in 2024”, “Democracy at Red State Risk”, “Does Trump Go to Jail or to The Oval Office?”, “Trump: Pardon or Punish?: The Nixon Precedence Was Not A Trump Coup Denied!”, “Common Sense: When will Trump be Impeached, Indicted, and Exited?”, “Trump–unrestrained dangerous liar!” and “Our Ethnic Mix May Save Us!”.

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