What 64 Can Look Like

Diane Sawyer has been in the news business for forty years. You would think after all that time she would look the wear of it, have lost the thrill of what got her there in the first place, be jaded and disillusioned. But she’s not.

I listened to her off the anchor desk interview with Oprah Winfrey last week. It doesn’t take long to figure out why she looks so good. It’s her passion. You hear it in her voice when she speaks of the fascination she still has “looking into the lives of people.” The joy she gets out of working at something where she knows she can make a difference.

Yes, I am sure like many of us she works to maintain her physical appearance. But all the cosmetic dermatology and trips to the gym in the world cannot substitute what it means to have work that you are passionate about.

Diane Sawyer has been lucky. She found her passion early. Her reinventions have not been drastic but within the field of broadcast news. She is reinventing right now as she switches chairs at age 64(yes, she really is!) from morning news to the anchor desk for World News Tonight.

I grew up at a time when you were told not to trust anyone over the age of thirty. The Beatles lyrics in When I’m 64 didn’t make me feel any better about what that age was going to be like. There weren’t any role models, especially for women to suggest otherwise. Now there is Diane Sawyer, 64 and sensational. I’m not as worried as I was when I was younger. I know her secret. Doing what you love.