On the Question of Growing Old Usefully…

“Use what you have,” said Cicero, “and whatever you may… be doing, do it with all your might…. [with your] mind at full stretch like a bow, and never [give] in to… age by growing slack…. For myself, I had rather be an old man a somewhat shorter time than an old man before my time.” It is more than twenty centuries since Cicero said it, and his opinion has been supported by many others also. “Every man’s task,” said Emerson, “is his life-preserver.” “Let us not try to escape our work…” wrote Anna R. Lindsay. “Above all, let us not fail to see it. As long as we live we have work to do. That we are alive today is proof positive that God has something for us to do today. Let us ask ourselves as we arise each morning, What is my work today? We do not know where the influence of today will end. Our lives may outgrow all our present thought, and… dreams.” “It is important not to lean on other people,” said Dolores Del Rio, “because in time you will be unable to do things yourself….” “We should cease fighting age as if it were a foe,” said Dr. Sockman. “Memories of past experience may be even sweeter than these experiences were in reality…. when a pleasure is in prospect we are disturbed by the fear it may not be realized. But a pleasure in retrospect is secure.” William Cowper left us this: “Absence of occupation is not rest, A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.” The use of what we have is an obligation. The human mind can do more than it has ever done. The heart is happier when there is something useful to do. The body keeps better health in service. And if we try to save ourselves in inactivity, we lose what we are trying to save. Health and happiness are increased with the physical and mental employment of our powers. As the Country Parson put it: “I don’t remember ever seeing a happy man who had nothing to do.”