Most of us who attain what active Nebraska State Legislature Sergeant-at-arms Sally Gordon attains today, a three-digit birthday, are settled into armchairs, nursing home beds, well into our dotage. For most humans with three-digit birthdays, the numinous veil to the great beyond is sheer and the body is uncooperative. For Sally Gordon, after her giant birthday party at the State Capitol, she'll go on and work all day, and then walk home the seven blocks to her urban apartment.
From the Lincoln Journal Star QUOTE At 100, Gordon, who was secretary to three governors, still works, still walks the seven blocks from her home to the Capitol in good weather, still wears the bountiful hats that are her hallmark, still looks forward to life’s next adventure.Twenty-six years ago she became the first female sergeant at arms, a member of the red-coated crew of six who keep order in the legislative chamber and public hearing rooms.Gordon has worked all her adult life because she thrives on work. When she was expecting her first baby, “they brought my desk and typewriter to my house.”“I’m a desperate housewife, but allergic to housework,” she’s fond of saying.Gordon, a widow since 1969, had four children (a daughter died in 2006). She has seven granddaughters and six great-grandchildren. UNQUOTE
From the Omaha World-Herald QUOTE Gordon was hired as the Legislature's first female sergeant-at-arms in 1983, after friends suggested she would be good at it. Her son, Jim Gordon, a Lincoln attorney, said his mother has the "Energizer Bunny factor.""She keeps going because she can. She has the attitude that because you're alive, you need to be doing something," he said.Sally Gordon, who also had three daughters, acknowledges that she has slowed down a bit. She no longer makes the crosstown walk to the Gateway Shopping Center, for one.
Senators are expected to pass a resolution in her honor Monday. A cake and coffee reception is scheduled Thursday morning for her birthday, followed by a gathering of family members next weekend. With a sunny smile that never seems to set, Gordon said she doesn't know when she might retire.
"I'll work as long as I do a good job," she said. UNQUOTE
Spiritual visionary Jonathan Zap calls aging "The diminishment of hotness" -
QUOTE Let’s say, for example, a man is lamenting, “Oh, I wish I was young again,” when a genie happens to be walking by. The genie immediately grants his wish and puts him into the body of a random fifteen-year-old. The problem is that around 87% of the fifteen-year-olds in our society are morbidly obese, and only when the wisher finds that they are locked into the body of an obese and pimply fifteen-year-old does he realize the deeper truth: what he really wanted was not merely youth; what he really wanted was to look hot. UNQUOTE Case in point, Galadriel, the elf queen of Lothlorien in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Those of us who have read the books, particularly the Simarillion, know that Galadriel is thousands of years old. But you don’t catch Galadriel having to say defensive things like, “I’m six thousand years young.” The reason should be obvious: Her attractivenes, her "hotness" if you will, is not in question, therefore her age doesn’t matter.
So, a very happy 100th birthday to the Galadriel of Nebraska, Sally Gordon! Many, happy returns of the day!
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