In an interview in this Sunday’s Parade, Tom Brokaw talks about how luck has carried the NBC special correspondent through an adventurous life and a cancer diagnosis.
At age 75, the journalist has had more adventures than most people rack up in several lifetimes. But, as Brokaw writes in his new book, A Lucky Life Interrupted, “The conceit of a long lucky life is that bad things happen to others.” Which is true — until they happen to you. He tells Parade that a diagnosis of multiple myeloma in August 2013 changed his life, but with his cancer now in remission after months of treatment, his luck seems to be holding steady.
On adversity:
“If there’s an oxymoron in American life it’s ‘humble anchorman.’ Cancer has given me a dose of humility. I’m much more empathetic.”
On attitude…and living in New York:
“I believe you make your own luck…The thing I love about living in New York is that I never fail to get up in the morning and think, Something adventurous is going to happen today. The energy is operating at full throttle all the time. And if you want to be lucky you’ve got to go out and take advantage of it.”
On opportunity:
“Even my blind luck was not entirely blind luck. For example, I was in California working for NBC and they wanted me to move East. I was happy where I was. Then they said, we want you to cover the White House; we don’t know where this Watergate thing is going…Well, that’s the greatest political story in the history of Americas and I was there every day. Being there for the fall of the Berlin Wall [was also lucky]. We had no idea the Wall was going to come down 24 hours after I got there.”
On love, and his wife of 52 years, Meredith:
“[Meredith and I] have been married a long time. This cancer experience has just deepened my awe of her. It’s hard to me to say I love her more. This has deepened our relationship. We’ve always cared about each other a lot, but I so depended on her through this.”
For more about Tom Brokaw’s “lucky star,” and his tips for cancer patients, check out Parade this Sunday, or go to Parade.com:
http://parade.com/394097/kmccleary/tom-brokaw-im-the-luckiest-guy-in-the-world/
