Christmas Eve  I will be 70.

Somehow that’s tough to write, tougher to read.

In his country hit “Don’t Let The Old Man In,” Toby Keith croons, “ask yourself how old would you be if you didn’t know the day you were born.”

When I give it serious thought I come up with 42 or 45, somedays 36.

I confess, birthdays (my birthdays) have never been easy for me. 

The bulk of them were spent playing music at The Oyster Box Hotel or at T-Jetty or at The Edward or any one of the hotels in Durban and Umhlanga areas. When I was much younger, I spent them on the bandstand at the Parkhill Hall or playing at one of the many MOTH Shellhole functions for war heroes to sing “pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile” and “kiss me goodnight sergeant major” as they danced by.

A birthday is easy to avoid if you’re warming your audience with “Girl From Ipanema” with the finest drummer and bass player in the nation and seated at the the Oyster Box Hotel’s Steinway, or later, banging out “Crocodile Rock” or “Sloop John B.”

Enough about that. 

[Please leave a comment if our band played at you wedding(s), 21st, whatever…….]

This year has been quite a year. 

I won’t go into the details of the trips I have taken but they did include 5 “new” nations to me. My earliest “speaker mentor” taught me that as an international speaker I would have the best and worst experiences. He said I would sleep in stations and on dirt floors and in 5 star hotels. He told me I’d be delayed, denied, rejected, upgraded, downgraded, embraced and applauded, loved and hated. I loved YWAM’S Rudi Lack from the moment I met him (I was about 20) when I hosted him at Charles Gordon’s request for 10 days in my parent’s home on Blackburn Road.

“God is much more interested in your character than your comforts,” he declared. 

Rudi is right. 

“Always leave more than your teaching,” he said, “no matter where you go. Give more than you take. Go places that can’t afford your travel expenses.”

This year I have gathered about 25 people to empower through our nonprofit and have been able to leave thousands of dollars in scholarships for young men and women on four continents who aspire to serve and bring healing to our broken world.

Next year, God willing, I am going to do more and more and more until I’ll be at least 55 years old in response to Toby Keith’s beautiful question.

I am not a go-fund-me guy – although I happily give when I can to people and causes I believe in. I know I could post a link right here and ask for your gifts to my nonprofit – but I am not going to do that. Clicking is easy, it’s the human connection I want with you before your giving. 

Thank you to readers around the world who read my columns – in 180 Nations – and in KZN’s morning newspaper The Mercury (Monday to Friday for 24 years) and readers of The Courier Times and for those who read my work on FaceBook and all that. 

If you want to give me a birthday gift — large or small — make it to my nonprofit and I will pass it on, pay it forward, put it into serving hands and hungry mouths, and towards the education of some of the finest and most beautiful people I have ever met, many of whom most will misguidedly — simply because of where they live and their financial state — consider poor! 

Contact me – I’ll send you the link or the address.       

So, how old would you be if you didn’t know the day you were born?

Go on, tell me……  

Today, I’m at least 35.