The Art of Living Long…

If we are blessed with long years of life, this brings us to old age, and with old age there sometimes comes concern, not so much concern for growing old gracefully as for growing old usefully⎯”The Art of Living Long without Growing Old” as one respected person put it. All reason and sense and inner awareness tell us that men are immortal. But we know what we have here, and we cling to it as long as we can, which always we should and must, seeking to make full use of all the life we live. As to being well and happy in the later years of life: “A sense of purpose and the opportunity to contribute to others,” said one physician, “⎯these are as vital to total health as are adequate nutrition and rest.” “I know of no greater fallacy,…” said William Lyon Phelps, “than the statement that youth is the happiest time of life. As we advance in years we really grow happier, if we live intelligently…. To say that youth is happier than maturity is like saying that the view from the bottom of the tower is better than the view from the top. As we ascend, the range of our view widens immensely; the horizon is pushed father away. Finally as we reach the summit it is as if we had the world at our feet.” Each part of life has its usefulness, its compensations; its challenges, its problems; its beauty, its service, its satisfactions. And as we live in honor, serving, as we can, as fully and in any way we can, keeping faith and peace within ourselves and with Him who made us all, there is an ever added meaning to these lines from Karle Wilson Baker:

Let me grow lovely, growing old⎯

So many fine things do;

Laces, and ivory, and gold,

And silks need not be new.

And there is healing in old trees,

Old streets a glamour hold;

Why may not I, as well as these,

Grow lovely, growing old?