I happen to know the happiest guy in the whole world

Wouldn't it be wonderful to be completely happy and to have nothing at all to worry about?

I can't remember the last time my life was like that, but I do know someone who fills the bill. He's my grandson, Lexington Wesley Kastner, and he celebrated his second birthday yesterday.

Birthday boy

I haven't spent a whole lot of time with Lex in his first two years, but the miracle of modern-day communications -- particularly Skype -- has made it possible to see him and hear his voice every weekend even though he lives in Jamaica.

Our other grandchild, our lovely granddaughter Madison, is 5 now. She was born in Beijing and has already lived in China, Virginia, Indonesia and Jamaica. Lex was born in Seattle, and from there went to Indonesia and back to the States across Europe and the Atlantic, spending a little time back in Seattle in July 2012. Amazingly, he circumnavigated the globe before he was nine months old.

As long as my daughter Pauline continues her career in the Foreign Service, Lex and Maddie are going to be true citizens of the world. My two closest friends have never traveled outside North America, but these two kids are going to be extremely well-traveled.

Maddie, Lex and Pauline

I always thought I was reasonably adventuresome because on six different occasions during my career as a journalist, I accepted jobs and moved to places I had never lived before.

On most of those occasions, I didn't know anyone at all at my new location.

Big deal. My daughter -- and my son Virgile -- have both accepted jobs and moved to entirely different countries where they had to learn brand-new languages.

Pauline has learned Mandarin Chinese and Indonesian, and Virgile has learned Greek and Spanish for his two postings.

The closest I've come to learning a different language is picking up Southern.

I know that it's "y'all," not "you all," and I know it's never singular. There is of course the bigger plural, which is "all y'all." Seriously, I've never been fluent in a foreign language, and I admire my kids so much for the effort they have put into languages.

At some point soon, we will spend a couple of weeks in Jamaica with our daughter's family. The plan is to go for Thanksgiving, and health willing, we will do it.

I doubt I'll have nothing to worry about while I'm there, but I have a feeling some of Lex's happiness will rub off on me.

I am really looking forward to watching those two kids continue to grow.

There are some blessings to retirement.