INSPIRING WISDOM

The Golden Years

What are the Golden Years?

Ordinarily men are prone to regard advanced age as a period of ailment and decline and self-resignation. We consider this attitude exceedingly false. Realizing God's goodness and loving kindness, we cannot at all imagine that He would create any period of life that would prove a detriment to man and a span of unhappiness to him. We can appreciate the great blessing of long life better, when we understand that it was not the design of God to make advanced age a period of ailment and misery… The period of advanced age is a blessed period. It is the period of clear reflection and acute judgment; he is therefore able to rise above his environment and take a panoramic view of life; to reflect clearly and take in the higher, subtler joys of life. Advanced age is therefore a blessing and longevity a gift. We say that God created advanced age not for stagnation and sickness and misery, but, on the contrary, for joy and well-being and achievement. In advanced age man must continue to reflect and to think and to judge and to participate in the advancement of the world.

Is advanced age a calamity? Are gray hairs and wrinkles a humiliation? Some there are who look upon old age as a period of infirmity and depression, sickness and decay. Yet, old age, properly regarded, is the crowning glory of man. It is therefore inconceivable that the God of goodness and mercy should have created man with a view of giving health and joy at a certain period of his life, and sickness and suffering at another period. Can we believe that God brought man on earth to let him feed his soul on everything that is beautiful, and then tell him: “You have had a taste of good things; you have had vigor and strength and power; now grow you old and sick and helpless.”

The Three Challenges

There are three fundamentals essential to the attainment of long life. Work, moderation and faith. By keeping at his work, man makes himself an integral part of life. Through the exercise of work, his energies become daily recharged, his aspirations become replenished and his hopes never cease. The essential function of work is not merely to supply man with sustenance. Suppose one's needs are well provided for, does this mean that he is free from work? Work for the sake of sustenance is of course necessary, but the real function of work…is the opportunity which it affords for self-expression. One may be well supplied with comforts and even riches, and yet his faculties, his powers need a field in which they may discharge their energies, in which they may create, and realize the joy of achievement. There is dignity in work. Work binds man to mankind, it makes him kin with the rest of creation, it justifies him in feeling that he is one of the creative forces in the universe. Man therefore must never retire from work; for the moment he retires from the task of achieving, he shortens his days. He seals his own end when he tells his mind and his limbs that they have labored enough, that it is time now for them to lapse into a passive existence. Man may retire from business if he wishes, but he must never retire from work…He may have enough, be he can never know enough.

Moderation, too, we have said, is vital to long life…Man's appetites and desires surpass by far his actual needs…Moderation must be followed in food, in sleep, and in the pursuit of pleasure. Moderation must also be exercised in the seeking of pleasure. True pleasure recreates the body and refreshes the mind; it augments man's joys, it invigorates his powers, it elevates and rejuvenates him…Excessive pleasure does not add to man's happiness, it weakens the resistance of his body, it renders his mind flabby and unproductive. It is an obstacle to long life.

More essential than these is faith…implicit trust that there is a Supreme Benevolent Power who sustains and protects and provides for all whom He called into existence.

Toward The Future

Advanced age has gained maturity of thought and maturity of experience. Too many regard the period of advanced age as the period of rest. This is but another of those traditional age-old ideas that have succeeded in making old age unpleasant. When the energies of man fail, it is usually because they have not been called upon to act…What is the cause of old age? Is it merely the passage of days and years? No, we find old men at 50, and men who are young at 60 and 70 and more…When then can we call a man old? A man is old when he begins to look backward instead of forward, when he begins to review instead of to plan, when he begins to recount what he has achieved instead of reaching out to new achievements. The passage of the years should alter the course of and direction of ambition, but should not destroy ambition itself. A man of many years and experiences, who has tasted the vicissitudes and the fortunes that life offers, must emerge from the crucible of his experiences, more tender, more compassionate, more devoted to his kind. We say that the span of human life can be lengthened, not through arbitrary preservatives applied to the body, but through the proper, wholesome uses of the mind. …man is not fundamentally a body. The chief essence of his make-up is mind. Mind it is that rules and directs the life of man. Mind it is that sees and interprets, plans and builds, searches and comprehends. Mind it is that rejoices or is afflicted, that experiences happiness or endures suffering, that hopes or is despondent; mind it is that lives and wills and achieves. When the mind ceases to function, the body becomes useless…Therefore when we seek to prolong the span of human life, the starting step must be made, not with the body, but with the mind.

Not only must man, and his increase in age, continue to keep his mind occupied, but he must also keep his heart no less active with the passage of years. The human heart must continue to cherish the emotion of love; it is not the love fostered in the heart of youth; it is not the love of storm and excitation; it is a much higher love, it is an impersonal love, it is the love an ideal, the love of humanity, the love of a better and nobler world. Also, if you wish to live long, do not lose interest in life. Do not say to yourself, at a certain age: “This world is for young people, I have already passed the stage of youth and ambition, there is nothing left for me but to retire”… By losing interest in life, he undoubtedly hastens his end. In fact, without this interest, life at any time dwindles into a mere process of vegetation and it becomes simply a period of waiting, of waiting for the end. It matters not…what your age be, it matters not what your fortune, devote yourself to something useful, identify yourself with something helpful, stand for something vital and effective in human life, and you will reap your reward right here on earth. You will be rewarded by a longer and happier life.

God does not deny us the power of long life, but it is we who must study how to live it. Watch therefore each day; let each day be a day of work and achievement; let each day hear the heroic marks of restraint and moderation; let each day be a day of faith and trust in God's goodness. Do not shadow your mind with despondencies of the past. No matter what your fate may have been in the past, no matter how many trials and struggles and entanglements you have passed through, no matter how many obstacles were placed in your path, no matter how many failings and failures have striven to set you back, keep your spirit aloof from that dead past, look forward! Your golden age is before you, not behind you. It is not inherent in the nature of man to grow resigned and pessimistic with the advent of years. It is his accepted conception of age that renders him so. In order to live long, train yourself for longevity; train yourself for longevity not only at the ebb of your days, but in your very youth. Always let your mind be buoyant, let it be cheerful, let it be optimistic and hopeful, and you will thereby be depositing treasures of strength for your advanced days. As an excellent tonic, a man in his advanced years should seek and hold on to an ideal, identify himself with it, make it his own. In advanced age, we must not surrender our sense of mirth and joy. Mirth is a tonic, cheer is a sun-ray. Age does not need the heavy enjoyments desired from the satisfaction of the senses. Its enjoyments must be more tender, more spiritual, more in harmony with the wisdom of maturity.

Finally to prolong your span of life, keep your mind always in a happy state. It is never too late, if necessary, to start life over again. It is, therefore, surely never too late for a new adjustment, a new start, a reconstruction of one's life. Wen a man starts over again, he also lives over again. And when we must start all over, we also have the glorious opportunity of being remade all over.