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I’m looking at RMN’s biography… the dates speak for themselves. He first graduated in 1945, was performing major surgery in the 60s and got an honorary doctorate in 1970! Wow! (He’s certainly had a full life). He’s actually three years older than TSM was when he died and that’s before he even starts.
Given that he is 93 already, I doubt we will be seeing him in for as long as TSM who was around for nearly a decade.
Even if he does become a centenarian, which is possible, he is going to be subject to a lot of pressures most folk of that age are not.
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Looking at his dates, we can see he is older than North Korea and East Germany (and the creation of the Iron Curtain, Cold War etc), would be able to remember Stalin & Hitler, and before colour television (and before TV was in most places), the Great Depression, Civil Rights, the creation (yes, creation) of apartheid in South Africa, Kennedy’s assassination, microelectronics, space travel, jumbo jets etc.
When he was born, the USSR hadn’t been around for a decade, the Republic of Ireland was only several years old, the UN didn’t exist. Newfoundland was not part of Canada. The British had a strong empire and navy & ruled India with much of Africa.
He is ten years older than Yuri Gagarin was, and six years older than Neil Armstrong was! He is about a third as old as the USA and has lived under fifteen presidents. He is two years older than the Queen (there have been four reigning British monarchs in his lifetime).
Alaska and Hawaii were not states, Utah had been a state thirty years and Arizona & New Mexico had barely been states for twelve years.
Mormon dates (rounded up to year)
He is about half the age of the LDS church.
Born and joined (age 16) under Heber F. Grant. He has lived under ten prophets.
Born less than 30 years after polygamy declaration.
Born 54 years before priesthood opened up to blacks, joined 38 years before the declaration. Since the declaration was 40 years ago, he has spent approximately half his church life under the priesthood ban.
He was in his sixties when the temple ceremony was modified.
And just to put us in our place, the Universe will let him live until he is 103. He is spry, lucid, with a young wife. We are going to need to sit back and enjoy the ride.
Between me and the lamppost I am hoping for a Harold B. Lee. But I am not holding my breath.
*A Harold B. Lee refers to President Lee being a very healthy man when he ascended to the top chair. Everyone assumed it would be a long tenure. He served barely 18 months. Then died unexpectedly.
It’s quite possible he could last ten years… yet he is picking up where TSM left off in more ways than one. Harold B. Lee passed away at 74 – RMN is 93!
mom3 wrote:
And just to put us in our place, the Universe will let him live until he is 103. He is spry, lucid, with a young wife.We are going to need to sit back and enjoy the ride.
Between me and the lamppost I am hoping for a Harold B. Lee. But I am not holding my breath.
*A Harold B. Lee refers to President Lee being a very healthy man when he ascended to the top chair. Everyone assumed it would be a long tenure. He served barely 18 months. Then died unexpectedly.
Me, too – an HBL or HWH type tenure would be fine with me. Trouble is, DHO (a healthy looking 85) and MRB (a healthy looking 89) are next in line followed by JRH (77). I can deal better with DHO or JRH than with either of the other two. FWIW, HBE, 84, and DFU, 77, are behind JRH followed by DAB. I’m thinking we’re still in the midst of the die off, with another great die off coming in about 20 years.
I’m in no rush to get to DHO. I know some view him as progressive (it’s all relative I guess) but it seems he’s always talking about religious freedom and traditional marriage, practically to the point of becoming one note. I don’t know how many more times members need to hear that particular note.
I’m not an optimist when it comes to the top seat that will likely play out for the remainder of my life.
RMN
DHO
JRH
DAB
After this it’s pure speculation but I’ll guess Rasband, since he’s fairly young.
Of those I like JRH the most. Sure he can be rough around the edges, who isn’t, but there’s a depressive side and a manic side with him. The manic side gets furious at people that leave and pulpit pounds on literalism, the depressive side likes to remind people that god loves them – irrespective of wherever they happen to find themselves, he makes salvation seem possible.
So out of grumpy, grumpy, occasionally extending god’s grace, a rulebook, and [better not say]… I’ll take JRH any day. But that’s just me. JRH still retains some of that pre-FC sheen with me.
Whenever I look at this issue, I am drawn back to two places – the Vatican and the Soviet Kremlin. Both have been dominated by old men. The Vatican has a fair degree of flexibility – more than it realises. It also gets to choose who its next pope is. We’ve seen one pope retire recently, and we’ve seen another who has proven to be progressive.
The Soviet Kremlin (and East German politburo & Cuba etc) was far less flexible than the Vatican and much more dangerous. Unlike the Vatican, charisma wasn’t just key but power. On the other hand, Soviet rulers could be ousted but popes couldn’t.
The Vatican has lasted centuries. The Soviet Union for decades.
The Soviet Union (and East Germany even more so) had a generational problem – a certain generation clung on to power and grew ever more elderly. It began to show in the seventies in the USSR and reached a head in the 1980s. The benefit was experience, the downside lack of innovation.
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