The actress Bette Davis once said, “Old age ain’t no place for sissies.”
As a practicing octogenarian I can attest to this, while also appreciating advice on staying young from 19th Century President James A. Garfield: “If wrinkles must be written on our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should never grow old.”
The topic is timely, since age is a major issue in the current presidential campaign.
There’s nothing light-hearted about the stakes for our country in the election’s outcome, but these days any excuse for a humorous interlude is welcome.
Aging was always a hot topic for comedian George Burns, an authority on the subject, since he lived to 100.
As he was getting on, Burns sardonically quipped, “When I was young, I was called a rugged individualist. When I was in my fifties I was considered eccentric. Here I am doing and saying the same things I did then, and I’m labeled senile.”
He also famously declared, “Nice to be here? At my age it’s nice to be anywhere.”
Comedian Phyllis Diller once declared, I’m at an age where my back goes out more than I do.”
Author Erma Bombeck had similar thoughts when she wrote, “The only reason I would take up jogging is so I could hear heavy breathing again.”
The poet Ogden Nash put his finger on truth when he observed, “You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely.” (Before you vote, compare the two presidential choices by that standard).
Whether age actually brings wisdom is arguable, but the poet Robert Frost thought so when he metaphorically observed, “The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.”
Equally poetic was the sentiment of actress Ingrid Bergman: “Getting old is like climbing a mountain; you get a little out of breath, but the view is much better.”
Mark Twain echoed President Garfield’s upbeat take on aging, observing, “Wrinkles should merely indicate where the smiles have been.”
On the other hand, there’s denial, as voiced by jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes: “Old age is always 15 years older than I am.”
Along those lines, literary wag Andy Rooney believed “It’s paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn’t appeal to anyone.”
Writer and activist Maya Angelou offers advice that’s hard to dispute: “Mostly, what I have learned so far about aging, despite the creakiness of one’s bones and cragginess of one’s once-silken skin, is this: Do it. By all means, do it.”
On that I am in her camp, as well as in the camp of actress Sophia Loren when she said, “There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.”
Gerry Goldstein (gerryg76@verizon.net), a frequent contributor, is a retired Providence Journal editor and columnist.
I love the article “Ageless Thoughts on Growing Old”: I would personally want to be in Maya Angelo’s camp or Sophia Lauren’s camp … it’s about the cup being half full rather than half empty. The lead investigator for the Harvard Ageing Brain Study (a long term study with over 40 clinics across the country to conduct this study) has said that she has several centenarians even 106 and 108.