A little girl talked to her grandpa and the conversation goes this way.
“Grandpa,” a young girl asked, “were you in the ark with Noah?”
“Certainly not, my dear,” Grandpa replied in astonishment.
“Then,” the puzzled child continued, “why weren’t you drowned?”
Maybe he seemed older than Noah to her, but seniors may be finally getting respect they rightfully deserve. Hugh Downs reported that when senior adults are properly motivated, their intelligence does not wane.
In fact, the ability to organize thinking may increase as folks age.
Many people in their 50’s, 60’s and even 70’s can go through college with greater efficiency than at 18.
Adults over 70 years of age have contributed richly and in varied ways.
– Emmanuel Kant wrote his finest philosophical works at age 74.
– Verdi at 80 produced “Falstaff” and at 85, “Ave Maria.”
– Goethe was 80 when he completed “Faust.”
– Tennyson was 80 when he wrote “Crossing the Bar.”
– Michelangelo completed his greatest work at 87.
– At 90, Justice Holmes was still writing brilliant American Supreme Court opinions.
And then there’s George Dawson.
George learned to read at age 98. (He was forced to quit school when he was a small child in order to help support his family.)
“I got tired of writing my name with an ‘X,'” he said.
Four years later, at age 102, he wrote his autobiography, LIFE IS SO GOOD, published by Random House.
Dreams are renewable. They need not expire like an over-due library book.
No matter our age, we can breathe new life into old dreams. I believe that the best age is the age you are, but something even better awaits just ahead for those with the courage to dream and to act.
Are you renewing your dreams?
Feeling old?
Age is something that doesn’t matter unless you are cheese.
it’s not how old you are, but how you are old.
The late General Douglas MacArthur wrote something very profound about aging on his 75th birthday:
In the central place of every heart there is a recording chamber; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, and courage, so long are you young. When the wires are all down and your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and then only are you grown old.
A survey was taken recently of people who are over 95. The people were asked one question. It was an open-ended question they could answer any way they wished.
The question was: If you could live your life over again, what would you do differently?
Among all the different answers, these three answers came back most frequently:
1. If I could live my life over again, I would reflect more.
2. I would risk more.
3. I would do more things that would live on after I’m dead.
Lilia my wife whom I fondly call the Ilocana agree that as we grow old, we will make it a resolve not to be cynical, critical and skeptical or else we’ll make life hell for our in-laws. But we well be encouraging, inspiring and loving and really…really…really learn to grow old gracefully.
And why’s that?
Because He who is with us in our youth will be with us in our golden years and He never changes.
Isa 46:4 says:
4Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
And this is why:
We don’t want to grow old because we don’t want regret to take over the place of dreams.