Leon J. Hoffman has been playing the cello since he was 4 years old, playing in concerts since he was 5 or 6, and was part of an orchestra that played Carnegie Hall in New York City when he was 9.
Hoffman also has run 60 marathons, including the Chicago Marathon about 10 times, dating back to the 1978 eventthe second time the 26.2-mile race was ever held. ( He did not run this year. ) And he's also run the prestigious Boston Marathon 10 times, too.
Hoffman has visited about 80 countries, not to mention every state in the U.S. and almost every Canadian province.
Life sure is good for Hoffman, a still-practicing clinical psychologist who is 75 and lives in Chicago's Lake View neighborhood.
"I have a very balanced life and can't imagine how it could be any better," Hoffman said. "I have never taken a vacation because I'm never doing something I don't like. I have been practicing [as a doctor] about 45 years, since the early 1970s.
"Overall, I have nothing but fond memories. It's being an outstanding fit. Life is all about fit and timing. Thankfully I've been able to travel anywhere I want, eat in whatever restaurant I want. I can talk with everyone from the homeless to the nobility. I'm comfortable any place I go. I never feel like an outsider."
Memories certainly are plentiful for this energetic New York native. He talks at length about his lifelong experiences, shares newspaper clips from USA TODAY on down that showcase his views and then pulls out his cell phone to share photos and videos that he's captured. For instance, he has a variety of images he spotted this past June during the annual Chicago Gay Pride Parade.
Hoffman was at the parade this year, as he's been countless times over the past few decades. He knows of Roscoe's and Sidetrack, and has had drinks in both, many times. Hoffman is straight, but certainly intertwined personally and professionally in the gay community.
He's seen enormous "growth, improvement and advancement" in the gay community locally, he said. "[Openly gay] people seem to be much more accepting, comfortable, and unashamedand that wasn't always the case."
Hoffman said he has known gay professors, gay doctors of a variety of specialties, gay musicians and he's run alongside gay runnersand it's never been an issue.
Hoffman said he's rarely hit on at gay bars. "I don't think I give off signals that [I am looking] for anything," he said.
He said he was lucky as a child to have some exceptional teachers and role models who helped shape his future, especially on the musical front.
At age 14, he played the cello in Symphony New Hampshire, which dates back to 1923. And at age 20, he played alongside Itzhak Perlman.
"As it's been said, music is how our feelings sound," Hoffman said. "My cello, my violin were the most democratic thing I knew. It doesn't say, I don't play for women, or for gays, or for Blacks, or for Jews. It plays for everyone and shows no discrimination. That's what music is all about."
Music tied into his psychology work and more, he saidthrough the concept of ensemble, which he's used to understand couples, families, organizations, athletic teams, nations, and more.
"I couldn't imagine doing anything else," he said.
Hoffman's travels have taken him around the world multiple times. His two favorite stops are northeast Romania and central Switzerland. "I've been very fulfilled [as a traveler]. I have no [travel] regrets. Travel has been very fulfilling," he said.
When traveling, it is a mix of personal and professional for Hoffman, who often added a few personal days before or after a business trip to further explore the city, see friends, etc.and said he always paid his own way.
"I'm often asked my most favorite destinations, and my answer always is: where I am at the moment because I have a choice to be here or not, and I choose to be here," he said.
Hoffman for years, regardless of which city he woke up in, hit the streets from 6-8 a.m. for a run, at times covering as many as 15 miles before he started his work day.
Hoffman has run in 80 countries, and he completed the 1978 Chicago Marathonhis first marathonabout six months after open-heart surgery, at age 38, for a blocked artery.
"The marathon for me is symbolic; it's a metaphor for life," Hoffman said. "It's the sporting event where a first-time runner can compete with and against the greatest runners of all time. Name another sport where that happensthere are none.
"The marathon also is the most democratic event in the world in that, everyone runs his or her own raceand they can be any race, religion, sexual orientation, etc."
Hoffman sports black New Balance running shoes with his last name stitched into thema gift from the popular shoe company, he said. Hoffman, at age 57 in 1996, ran the Chicago Marathon for his 57th overall marathonand he was given race bib No. 57 because of that unique storyline. In addition, Heinz 57 sponsored him for that race after company executives learned of the runner who also lives in the Chicago zip code ending in 57 and it was the Jewish New Year 5757.