My father, Henry Kissinger, is turning 100. This is his guide to longevity.
On Saturday, my father, Henry Kissinger, celebrates his 100th birthday. This might have an air of inevitability for anyone familiar with his force of character and love of historical symbolism. Not only has he outlived most of his peers, eminent detractors and students, but he has also remained indefatigably active throughout his 90s.
Even the pandemic did not slow him down: Since 2020, he has completed two books and begun work on a third. He returned from the Bilderberg Conference in Lisbon earlier this week just in time to embark on a series of centennial celebrations that will take him from New York to London and finally to his hometown of Fürth, Germany.
My father’s longevity is especially miraculous when one considers the health regimen he has followed throughout his adult life, which includes a diet heavy on bratwurst and Wiener schnitzel, a career of relentlessly stressful decision-making, and a love of sports purely as a spectator, never a participant.
How then to account for his enduring mental and physical vitality? He has an unquenchable curiosity that keeps him dynamically engaged with the world. His mind is a heat-seeking weapon that identifies and grapples with the existential challenges of the day. In the 1950s, the issue was the rise of nuclear weapons and their threat to humanity. About five years ago, as a promising young man of 95, my father became obsessed with the philosophical and practical implications of artificial intelligence.
As the Thanksgiving turkey was passed around in recent years, he would ruminate about the repercussions of this new technology, in ways that occasionally reminded his grandchildren of storylines in the Terminator films. While immersing himself in the technical aspects of AI with the intensity of an MIT grad student, he infused the debate over its uses with his singular philosophical and historical insight.
The other secret to my father’s endurance is his sense of mission. Although he has been caricatured as a cold realist, he is anything but dispassionate. He believes deeply in such arcane concepts as patriotism, loyalty and bipartisanship. It pains him to see the nastiness in today’s public discourse and the seeming collapse of the art of diplomacy.
As a child, I remember the warmth of his friendships with people whose politics might have been different from his, such as Kay Graham, Ted Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey. Kennedy loved to play practical jokes that my father thoroughly enjoyed (including inviting Dad to his home office and claiming to have a mongoose hidden in a closet).
Even as Cold War tensions persisted, Soviet Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Dobrynin was a frequent guest at our house. The two of them would occasionally play games of chess between negotiating issues affecting the entire planet. My father had no illusions about the repressive nature of the Soviet regime, but these regular conversations helped de-escalate tensions at a time when the nuclear superpowers appeared to be on a collision course. If only such regular dialogue occurred between the top players in today’s global tensions.
Chess aside, diplomacy was never a game for my father. He practiced it with a commitment and tenacity born of personal experience. As a refugee from Nazi Germany, he had lost 13 family members and countless friends to the Holocaust. He returned to his native Germany as an American soldier, participating in the liberation of the Ahlem concentration camp near Hannover. There, he witnessed the depths to which mankind can sink unconstrained by international structures of peace and justice. Next month, we will return to Fürth, where he will lay a wreath at the grave of his grandfather, who did not escape.
I know that no son can be truly objective about his father’s legacy, but I am proud of my father’s efforts to anchor statecraft with consistent principles and an awareness of historical reality. This is the mission he has pursued for the better part of a century, using his rare brain and unflagging energy to serve the country that saved his family and launched him on a journey beyond his wildest dreams.
生词记录
longevity 长寿，长命，持久
inevitability 不可避免的状态，必然发生的事态
symbolism 象征意义；象征手法
outlive 比…活得长;比…待续时间长
detractor 诋毁者；贬低者；恶意批评者
indefatigably 不倦地;不屈不挠地
embark on 开始，着手做（新的或重要的事情）
miraculous 奇迹般的；令人惊奇的；不可思议的
regimen （尤指为了增进健康的）生活规则，养生之道，养生法
bratwurst 德国式小香肠
relentlessly 不间断地，持续地
spectator （尤指体育赛事的）观众
enduring 持久的；持续的
vitality 生命力；活力
unquenchable 无法抑制的
grapple with 扭打；搏斗;努力设法解决；尽力解决；设法对付；尽量克服
obsess 使痴迷，使迷恋，使心神不宁
philosophical 哲学的;泰然自若的；处乱不惊的；达观的
implication 可能的影响（或作用、结果）;含意；暗指，暗示
ruminate 沉思，长时间思考
repercussion 后果
immerse （使）深陷于，沉浸在
intensity 强烈；剧烈;（感情或看法的）强烈；认真；全情投入
infuse 输注（药物等）;使充满（某种感觉）；向…灌输（某一品质，某一特性）；使具有，注入（特性）
singular 单数（的）;特别的；引人注意的；特别的，奇特的
insight 洞察力；深刻见解
caricature 用漫画表现；讽刺
realist 现实主义者；务实的人；注重实际的人
anything but 恰恰不；根本不；决不
dispassionate 冷静的，镇静的，沉着的
arcane 神秘的;秘密的;晦涩难解的
patriotism 爱国心；爱国主义；爱国精神
bipartisanship 两党合作
nastiness 肮脏; 丑陋 | 黑暗面、阴暗面; 不友善的行为，恶毒品行; 失礼，鲁莽
practical joke 恶作剧
mongoose 獴
closet （尤指放衣服的）壁橱，壁柜，储藏室
persist 继续存在（发生）; 坚持
repressive 镇压，压制； 抑制（感情）的，压制（言论）的
de-escalate （使）缓和，（使）缓解
collision 碰撞，互撞；冲突，抵触
if only 只要，倘若，要是
tenacity 坚韧；坚毅
wreath 花环；花圈
legacy 遗产，遗赠；历史遗产，遗留物
anchor 把…系住（或扎牢）；使稳固，使固定；使扎根；使基于
statecraft 治国才能
unflagging （精力、兴趣、热情等）永不减弱的，不懈的，持久的
