Saying Yes

Dick Van Dyke recently celebrated his 100th birthday and the flurry of publicity has been a bit annoying. Everything from mainstream media to people posting that they met him once, all trying to claim a piece of this beloved performer. Nonetheless, some of the insights from interviews with him are useful.

Everyone asks, of course, how to live to 100. The way many people live, longevity doesn’t necessarily seem desirable to me. Dick’s way, however, sounds delightful indeed. He stays active with stretching, dancing and the gym. He’s playful, always looking for opportunities to make jokes and have fun. He makes a real effort to maintain relationships with family and friends. And, what truly struck me, he always tries to say yes to new experiences and opportunities.

Being active is obvious, as is sustaining connections with others. Large bodies of research prove they both improve health. Trying to have fun, and always saying yes, are less obvious, but strike me as intuitively sensible. If we’re only going around once, we might as well do our best to enjoy it. I’ve often said life is not a dress rehearsal – even put that on a t-shirt in college! – and I do try to live that way.

Saying yes is, to my mind, the real key. Even when an adventure is not completely successful we always come away with memorable stories. A perfect example was our trip to Havana, Cuba, captured in this painting. Great cars and architecture, albeit decrepit, and wonderful people. Maybe some day I’ll tell you the  Havana stories – the breakfast elevator, the banks, the power outage, the balconies falling down – but we always said yes!