Staying young is a state of mind for ex-biker
Kristine Berey
There were many reasons to dislike Hitler in pre-war Vienna, but perhaps his taste in music wasn ’t one of them. Yet, to young Peter Schwarz, “a non-Jew with a Jewish name,” it was a first indication that the psychopathic dictator was to be feared.
When Schwarz was drafted into the German army, he knew he could never swear allegiance to one who had declared jazz immoral. He took the first opportunity to desert, and found himself in Indonesia in a new life — the first of several.
This knack for turning adversity into opportunity led the graduate in engineering to become a chauffeur, pilot and entrepreneur, and to savour every drop of life, all through a series of happy accidents, which he describes in Staying Young for Life. Schwarz, who will be 90 in May, will be launching his latest incarnation as an author at the Diamond Book Store November 17.
“You never know how old you are because you never know how old you’re going to be,” says Schwarz. Although now legally blind because of macular degeneration, he still saunters down the winding stairs of his office, sliding his hand gingerly along the banister. He says he ’ll create new goals for himself until he is “at least 114.”
Schwarz graced the cover of The Senior Times when, at 75, he realized that all along he was “born to be wild.” He bought himself a shiny orange Harley Davidson motorbike, which he drove until the disease caught up with him at 82.
Schwarz lives by the idea that the greater the challenge, the greater the potential for personal fulfillment. He has no patience for “whining” and believes the head has to control everything below. In other words, if you’re unhappy, act like you’re not and the rest will follow.
More of a memoir than a self-help book, the reader is left with the sense that no matter what, life is beautiful; it ’s sheer folly not to avail oneself of everything life has to offer.
“I have a simple philosophy,” Schwarz writes. “If a problem is under my control, I look for a solution. If it is a problem beyond my control, I ignore it. Why waste good energy for a bad cause? One of the greatest challenges is to have a happy life. ”
Book launch Saturday, Nov. 17, 2-4 pm at Diamond Book Store, 5035 Sherbrooke St.W. Info: 514-481-3000.
