Reflections at 35,000 Feet
A Third Act Manifesto
Reflections at 35,000 Feet: A Third Act Manifesto
There’s something about a long flight in the middle of the night that makes my mind wander. Maybe it’s the lack of distractions and the temporary reprieve from the continuous onslaught of electronic alerts from Slack, email, and texts that allow me to use the time to unplug and think. I avoid airplane wifi when possible and use time in the air to decompress, disconnect, and contemplate.
Tonight, I stare my 60th birthday square in the eye at 35,000 feet in a window seat somewhere over the Midwest. My thoughts turn to the third act of my life as I gaze out at the darkness below. I’m contemplating how I can continue to live a life of meaning. It’s not that I don’t want to travel, play, and relax in Act III—I do. But surely there has to be more to life than pickleball and golf.
From this altitude, the petty divisions that consume our daily discourse seem smaller, somehow more manageable. The perspective reminds me of something my dad had framed in his office—a quote that turns out to be from General George Patton: “If two people think the same thing about everything, one of them isn’t necessary.” That aphorism applies to political thought and discourse as well as it does to military strategy. We’re not all going to agree all the time. We’re not meant to. There are few moments in history where we all agree, and most of those moments are punctuated by body counts.
When Disagreement Worked
History offers us a different model. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were philosophical opponents who engaged in heated debates about the role of government, yet they collaborated on a declaration that outlines the fundamental principle of equality underlying the American experiment. Their disagreements didn’t prevent them from forging something greater than either could have achieved alone.
Fast-forward two centuries: Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill held diametrically opposed views of government’s role in American life. Reagan believed in smaller government and free markets; O’Neill championed the New Deal legacy of federal programs and worker protections. Yet these political opponents were also genuine friends who understood that governance required compromise. After hours of fierce debate on the House floor, they would share a drink and find common ground.
The Reagan years saw landmark military expansion alongside comprehensive immigration reform, Social Security adjustments, and tax policy changes that neither party could have achieved alone. President Reagan and Speaker O’Neill didn’t refer to one another as enemies. They were political opponents who, after six o’clock, were comfortable sharing a meal and maybe even a pint or two. They held steadfastly to their beliefs, compromised when necessary, and through their unlikely partnership from opposite ends of the political spectrum, unlocked an American economic renaissance that continues to drive global innovation.
The Current Crisis
I despair for the future of our country when I open the newspaper and see political leaders speaking of hating their enemies. In a healthy democracy, the party out of power is the opposition, not the enemy. When we transform political opponents into existential threats, we abandon the very premise that makes democratic governance possible.
This isn’t a problem exclusive to one party or ideology. The extreme ends of both left and right have embraced a politics of demonization that treats compromise as betrayal and nuance as weakness. Social media algorithms amplify the most divisive voices while drowning out those calling for reasoned discourse.
Two Possible Futures
From my window seat perspective, I can envision two very different paths ahead.
The optimistic view sees us looking back on this era with the same mixture of bewilderment and shame that we reserve for the McCarthy period. In this future, the fever breaks, and leaders emerge from both parties who remember that governing requires the ability to work across the aisle. Someone will step forward to be this generation’s Howard Baker—a principled conservative willing to hold their own party accountable when it strays from democratic norms.
The pessimistic view is far more dire. It imagines a world where nativist and extremist elements, aided by compliant governors, legislators, and judges, abandon the freedoms enshrined in our Bill of Rights to advance an agenda driven by fear rather than hope. In this scenario, media concentration in the hands of partisan oligarchs amplifies division while democratic institutions crumble under the weight of political vengeance and authoritarian impulses.
The View from Main Street
My professional life has taken me around the world and across the country. In coffee shops, airports, hotel lobbies, and barbershops, I’ve met thousands of people and am struck more by what we share than what divides us. There’s an eternal optimism born of our shared history—a nation that harnessed electricity, split the atom, conquered fascism in Europe, and landed humans on the moon.
In countless encounters and conversations, I’ve witnessed our collective determination to provide for our families. We all want it to be a little easier: for food and gas to cost less, for education and healthcare to be accessible and affordable. Mostly, we want our children to have opportunities we didn’t—or at least I do.
These conversations remind me that the sensible center isn’t just a political position—it’s where most Americans actually live. We’re the ones who understand that complex problems rarely have simple solutions, that good people can disagree about methods while sharing common goals, and that progress comes through patient work rather than inflammatory rhetoric.
A Third Act Mission
I hope we haven’t permanently lost the ability to disagree amicably and compromise. If we have, we will have lost the ability to live together as one nation and continue to devolve into a society marked by division, hatred, and violence. But I don’t think that’s inevitable, and I hold onto hope that voices from the sensible center can once again drown out the extremists at the outer fringes of our national life.
As I reflect on the third act of my life, I recognize that I possess no demonstrable skills other than the ability to listen, communicate, relate, think, and perhaps even persuade. These may seem modest tools for such ambitious goals, but they’re exactly what our moment requires.
So I’ll launch Act III on these pages, sharing what I hope will be common sense for these times that try our souls. From 35,000 feet, the path forward seems clearer: we must rediscover the art of democratic discourse, remember that our opponents are fellow Americans, and prove that a government of, by, and for the people can still work in the 21st century.
The view from up here reminds me that we’re all in this together, hurtling through space on the same small planet, sharing more dreams than we have differences. It’s time to start acting like it.