SOME QUOTES ON OLD AGE
Old age is both a blessing and a problem. In India, most of
the aged people are venerated. They are treated as saints and sages. Their feet
are touched and their blessings are sought. They have large families with more
or less successful descendants. What is prayed for is their good health. If they
are victims of physical or mental ailments, they are looked upon as a burden,
not a blessing.
Most of the quotes on old age are not positive. For example:
(a) Years do not make sages; they only make old men. ( b) Men of age object too
much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive
business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of
success, (c) As we grow old we become both more foolish and more wise. (d) A
healthy old fellow, who is not a fool, is the happiest creature living. (e) No snow falls lighter than the snow of age;
but none lies heavier, for it never melts. (f) Wrinkles should merely indicate
where smiles have been. Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years.
(g) Some older persons might feel that they are so useless, helpless and at the
mercy of their physical problems, changes in living arrangement or negative
events. This sense of hopelessness and helplessness might be prolonged and lead
to the development of depressive illness or even suicidal attempt.
The authors of the preceding quotes which are mostly negative
could not be traced.
But the best positive quote is from the English poet Robert
Browning’s poem Rabi Ben Ezra who
says: Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life, for
which the first was made: Our times are
in His hand who saith “A whole I planned, youth shows but half, trust God: see
all, nor be afraid.”
******
G.R.Kanwal
9 July 2024
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