Several days ago I received the following email:

“Congratulations on your birthday. You happen to be my senior- by 3 months.

Are you and your equally aged brethren in the U.S. as concerned as I am about the goings on in the world?  What about the young?

Does age affect people´s judgment in such matters?

Start with Syria.  Whoever attacked these poor people with gas did something indescribably mean.

But even if their government did it, a  U.S. attack  widens the conflict (another Vietnam, Iraq?).

The whole Near East is very much of a mess with innumerable Islamic factions fighting each other and Israel standing by to protect itself. Is the role of the U.S. to directly enter into this mess?

Go on with Manning and Snowden. Were they right or wrong?  Or partly right and partly wrong? 

Should they be punished for their deeds or misdeeds?”               

This message came from my friend Carlos. He was taking note of my birthday, one that came close to his own.

He also shared some of his recent thinking about the world, as he likes to do frequently. I always enjoy receiving his perspectives and sharing views with him.

Carlos is one of my best friends.  This holds true even though he lives in Monterrey, Mexico, a place where I have never been.

We became friends during our freshman year in college. That friendship ranks as one of the most valuable of my experiences during that time. Over the decades since then, we have managed a few meetings, both in Mexico and in Cambridge.

A truly memorable reunion took place in July 1969 when I was spending a month in Cuernavaca, Mexico.  Carlos invited me to spend a few days in his home in Mexico City.

That is when I became acquainted with the Spanish phrase “Mi casa es su casa” (“My home is your home.”) Such was the hospitality offered me by Carlos and his wife that I learned the meaning of the motto and still treasure it.

During my visit, we happened to visit a small village on July 21, 1969. It was there, in a tiny café, that we watched Neil Armstrong land and walk on the moon.  I will never forget the drama of that event, as we saw it together in that unexpected place.

I am glad that Carlos and I can still witness world events together.

In answer to his first questions, I would say that my age peers feel strong concern about the issues he cites. Currently Syria preoccupies all of us. And we question whether President Obama has made the right moves.

When I sit down for weekly lunch with friends, all eighty and above, I am glad to see how they readily they start discussion of national and world questions.  We are at least as concerned as are the young people in our vicinity.

I have some memory of a time when old people were thought not to care about such matters. They appeared to us to be focused on their own present, without much concern for the future.

Nowdays, a greater number of older Americans enjoy good health and abundant educational opportunities. Maybe that is why they can confront the future along with younger people, and share in their worries and hopes for the world.

Perhaps I know the wrong people, but I am going to assure Carlos that those I have contact with really do care about our nation and our world.

That does not mean we know the answers any better than our juniors, but it does mean that the issues remain important for us.