Sunday, May 24, 2009

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, May 25, 2009

All diseases run into one, old age.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, philosopher, thinker, born
on this day, 1803, in Boston


It may be that I am approaching 63! And/or, that Emerson was young when he said this. Or perhaps it is the “age” in which he was born. He sounds particularly “American Modern” though, in terms of our American penchant for “eternal youth” – though I am glad to see AARP projecting and encouraging a different image!

Needless to say, old age is NOT a disease. Here is a poem by the Greek poet Anacreon (572-488BCE):

Oft am I by the women told,
"Poor Anacreon! thou growest old;
Look; how thy hairs are falling all;
Poor Anacreon, how they fall!"--
Whether I grow old or no,
By the effects I do not know;
But this I know, without being told,
'Tis time to live, if i grow old;
'Tis time short pleasures now to take,
Of little life the best to make,
And manage wisely the last stake.


Over 60? 70? 80? 90? “ ‘Tis time to LIVE”. Look at all the experience, the learning we have accumulated! The Wisdom we have read and tested out. Every age has it’s resources for engaging Life, of course. But Old Age – a particularly graced time! Emerson may have matured by the time he said, “As we grow old, the beauty steals inward.” And I think it is that Beauty, formed of many rich sources, that begets Beauty as a needed gift to the World from the aging.

Let it all hang out baby!

Brian+


p.s. In case you wonder who really said the following, it was apparently Emerson:

Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.

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