The New York Times reports that former Nixon speechwriter and columnist William Safire has died. While I disagreed with most of his politics, he had a great run at the Times with a column that was always witty, well-reasoned and well-written — a far cry from much of current right-wing discourse. I thought his final column was spectacular, and I saved a copy on my hard drive to refer to periodically. It’s called “Never Retire,” and it’s about the necessity of keeping the synapses active and continuously adapting to and participating in cultural change. Obviously, it’s even more relevant today than when Safire wrote it in 2005, and I recommend you keep a copy too and use it to periodically recharge your own sense of purpose.