Kate Lear is a writer, arts advocate and proud Board Chair of Ballet Hispánico. She is also the daughter of television writer and producer Norman Lear. She shares the wit and wisdom of her father in celebration of his 100th birthday.
I am the daughter of an extraordinary man, and I have been a loving observer of his life for more than six decades. On July 27th, 2022, he turns 100! As the second of his six children, I marvel not only that he has lived to be 100, but that he has enjoyed the heck out of getting here, learning just as much from his challenges as from his victories. So, what are his secrets?
To reach 100 you need many things, and the most obvious is good luck and lots of it. But to me, Norman Lear’s longevity has just as much to do with his in-born optimism. This is a man who goes to bed each night dreaming of the cup of coffee he will have in the morning, who has lived a life in which each meal magically turns out to be better than the one before (“this is the best pasta I’ve ever had!”), and who has said, many times, that he doesn’t want to wake up the day that he doesn’t have hope.
But his optimism just might be eclipsed by his profound interest in people and in the world. My father is the most outward-looking person I have ever known. He has never met a person he didn’t find fascinating. And because of this, as he grew older, his world expanded rather than contracted. What other 99-year-old is the last person to leave a party, or has an overall deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment? My father is a fortunate person, to be sure. But he is also a person who sees the opportunity in each day to meet someone new, eat something new, discover something new. There is a chil
