Happy Birthday, Uncle Steve Limbaugh!

RUSH: Last Friday, I meant to send out some happy birthday wishes to my Uncle Steve Limbaugh, retired federal judge for the Eastern District of Missouri. He turned 90 last Friday. He is my dad’s brother, my dad’s younger brother. He turned 90. And, folks, he’s still working every day. He’s a prominent attorney now at a major St. Louis law firm, having retired the federal bench. Honestly, he does not look a day over 60. It’s literally incredible. He’s 90 years old and does not seem to have aged, to me.

Now, his father — Rush Limbaugh Sr., my grandfather — lived until age 104 and worked all the way up to age 102. Even when he passed away, he was in full possession of mental faculties. It was simply the body wearing out. But Uncle Steve remains the rock of the family, the anchor of the family. We are a family that believes in tradition and the values and institutions that our family grew into at the time everybody in it was born, and those traditions have been maintained through various holidays — well, just through the years.

But it has required the efforts of the patriarchal adults of the family to maintain this. Because, as you know, new generations branch off, and new generations oftentimes reject the values and beliefs of their parents and grandparents. There’s nothing of any animus about it; it’s just generational evolution. For example, two generations ago could not comprehend the concept of cord cutting and watching television on four- and five-inch screens held in your hands.

And when that becomes popular, they don’t adapt to it. They stick with their TVs and they still wish they could find Walter Cronkite at 6:30. So it’s not that every new generation thumbs its nose and rejects previous generations; it’s just that they evolve and go off in their different directions. But our family has always been held together by the ranking adults of the family remaining anchored to the traditions and values that our family has always believed in as important to maintaining not just the country, but the family and the community and all of this.

And that’s the role Steve has played for — I don’t know — the last, 20, 25 years, ever since my grandfather died. He plays tennis at age 90 once or twice a week, and I meant to send out best wishes and happy birthday on Friday. We were just so occupied here, it slipped my mind, and I meant to do it yesterday. And it slipped my mind. So I grabbed my trusty iPhone X and I cranked up Siri to remind me today 11:45 and wrote a handwritten note to myself today to get it done. Now, by the way, these comments are in no way a criticism of anything else or any other family.

It’s just me telling you what — and these are my thoughts, by the way. I’ve not discussed this with anybody else in the family. It’s just my take, that our family values have remained the same. My whole life our family values have been defined and everybody knows what they are without even speaking them. My belief is that it has taken the ranking adult, patriarchal adult of the family to provide the… Well, the rock nature, the glue, and to have the respect and influence of everybody else in the family. Don’t misunderstand.

I mean, we’ve got some renegades and malcontents out there in our family like everybody else does. But I’m talking overall on balance. And it’s to me, anyway, it’s crucially important. Everybody needs an anchor. Every human being needs an anchor to decency and goodness, and I really feel sorry for those people that don’t have that, who were never raised with it — and, sadly, that’s way too many people. We’ve been very fortunate. And all of the ranking adults in our family have remained devoted and dedicated to setting the examples necessary to keep the respect for those traditions that we have all accepted and lived as a family, and Steve is the latest to accept the role and triumph in it for everybody else in the family.

So happy birthday, Steve.

        

                        

                        
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