| Show old age neece hold no terrors finding useful work Is For formula for happiness by news analyst and commentator WASHING washington TOM latest figures from the census bureau have revealed that the postwar period has produced a record baby crop estimated for 1946 almost a million more than were born in 1940 but it will take more than this belated burst of rejuvenation to keep the united states from becoming an old nation old in the sense that the average age will be high with a heavy proportion of oldsters there are two reasons for this nowadays people live much longer thanks to medical science and the size of the american family has shrunk in when the population was about millions persons were over 65 in n 1945 when the population approached millions persons were over 05 by 1970 there will be 10 million over that age out of an estimated population of more than millions million sl this situation poses a number of problems for the nation and also emphasize thi persona personal pro problem ba am the problem ol of growing old like many of our troubles real or imagined the best cure is to bring this one out into the tight light give it a good shaking the result in many cases will be that it disappears or that it shrinks to unimportance if that so go psychiatry be such a highly rewarded profession I 1 k wise men have known this for a 1 long time and lived to a happy old age others who know it have worried their friends find and themselves to early deaths by sitting down and weeping over their lost youth instead of getting up learning to take old age in their stride and liking it 41 recently I 1 read a very up to dato date Bauk liage ittle pamphlet called when you grow older written in straightforward english based on J modern scientific ideas the pam phit outlines ei methods which make that famous poem by browning so often regarded BS as wishful thin thinking Icing by the skeptical ring true grow old along with me said brownings rabbi den ezra ezia ohp the best is yet to be when I 1 grasped the bemo eme ot of this pamphlet it stirred clas silo avocations help adren te Td Ren youth louth anybody can develop an avocation voc of some kind in many cases these avocations have turned into paying vocations after retirement in any case they are literally life savers when it comes comes to making life livable various skills permit varying periods of activity many farmers are self sup porting at 70 or 75 perhaps this Is partly because of their environment mental and physical cicero says farmers are arc not hindered to any extent by old age nac and seem mem to me to an all the be ideal wise mans mani life most jobs are arc of ruch euch a character that ability to perform them declines with the years when you grow older cites as an example speed work like ilke the assembly line youth excels in this type of work but ago age does almost a as well as 0 s youth in the type classified classified as 11 power work the kind of job where skill is important there nere tv to not space here develop to the theme of when you grow older as its authors do so compactly compa etly in their 30 pages they discuss the questions personal and political of old age security they offer a host of vother other specific examples to illustrate tho the statements some of which I 1 havo have quoted here I 1 have attempted to review rather than a summary moved to comment partly because of tho the valuable suggestions offered oller cd and also partly because J P y f so G I 1 L ajl N 40 4 0 04 just 11 hanging around i a gentleman who considerably predated Browning had said tile same thing in his essay on old ago written in the year 44 f vt C 8 1 refer to marcus tullius cicero lie ho said among other pertinent things qui nutem autem omela a ige iasi els cis nihil til potest videll quod maturne naturae nd ad ferat forat 11 which it if pardon my freedom with the text means that those abo seek their happiness from within can never regard natures natu roii in as bud bad cicero wrote that essay when ho he was 63 years old and I 1 have no doubt he would haye lived what he preached tor for another decade or two it if his vigorous old had not produced the resounding phillip pica against anthony which resulted in his being purged roman style while suu still hale and hearty at 61 like cicero george lawton and maxwell stewart authors of the pamphlet I 1 mentioned stress the psychological problems pi of old inge aee the pamphlet Is issued by the public affairs airs committee Commit fee ee inc a nonprofit non profit educational tion 22 east st new york city 20 cents old bold age comes with A shock because we prepared for it maybe we are arc ready for the last day nt at uie or lit at the work bench or when we sell the farm and move more to the vil lage lace or city or la in other ways break a lifetimes routine nut but we vie may have failed to recognize the need to feel imbor tant a need which we must satisfy one way or another not important in the sense that thai we have somebody kowtow kow how tow to us but necessary to somebody or some thine tome some business k gonic 0 maybe not noti a bs big cog tint but something that helps the he wheels of life go eo round pertinent paragraphs of when you grow older offer a perfect example of how modern science and experience confirm the verities verifies veri ties expressed by poets and philosophers of of the past it ts Is still we the habit of many critics to praise the style of ciceris Cic eros de tute but to toss its message aside as wishful thinking eiva uvan montaigne who said frankly that reading tile essay made one long lone to grow old pessimistically bilm ilm i cited what lie considered a useful Iff to a more mere 60 50 years and thought hou elit it wrung wrong to contemplate further existence Cic ciceroe eros physical world was bounded by the frontiers conquered by romes plodding legions but his view was long in time today the men of our scientific age echo the request in the last paragraph of the great states mans immortal essay when he ha prayed th that at you put my words to practical prec test I 1 |
