On Growing Old Gracefully

It is true that young are more helpless and can take less care of themselves, but on the other hand they can get along better without material comforts than the old people. A child is often scarcely aware of material hardships, with the result that a poor child is often happy as, if not happier than, a rich child.  He may go barefooted, but that is a comfort, rather than a hardship to him, whereas going barefooted is often an intolerable hardship for old people.  This comes from the child’s greatest vitality, the bounce of youth.  He may have the temporary sorrows, but easily he forgets them.

The people with grey hair should not be seen carrying burdens on the street.

Four classes of world’s most helpless people as “The widows, widowers, orphans, and old people without children”.  Of these four classes the first two must be taken care by political economy which should be so arranged that these would be no unnamed men and women.

For young, it is to be taken for granted that not much need be said, since there is natural paternal affection.  “Water flows downwards and not upwards”, and therefore the affection for parents and grandparents is something that stands more in need of being taught by culture.  A natural man loves his children, but a cultured man loves his parents.

The greatest regret of a gentleman could have is the eternally lost opportunity of serving his old parents with medicine and hot food on their death bed, or not to be present when they died.

I feel like have been committing and committed a moral sin and feel ashamed of myself that despite being such a high official for more than thirty not been able to see my parents to bed every night and greeting them every morning.  Moreover I have been constantly offering excuses and explanation to friends and colleagues and to myself to absolve myself of the ultimate sin.  My feelings has been expressed by a man who returned too late to his home, when his parents had already died :-

“The tree desires repose, but the wind will not stop;

The son deserves to serve, but his parents are already gone”.

In my efforts to compare and contrast Eastern and Western life, I have found no differences that are absolute excepts in this matter of the attitude towards age, which is sharpened clear cut and parents of no intermediate positions. The difference in out attitude towards sex, towards women, and towards work, play and achievement are all relative.  The relationship between husband and wife in India is not essentially different from that in the West, nor even the relationship between parents and child.  Not even the ideas of individual liberty and democracy and the relationship between the people and their ruler are after all, so very different.  But in the matter of attitude towards age, the difference is absolute, and the East and the West take exactly opposite points of view.

It is a priviledge of the old people to talk, while the young man must listen and hold their tongue.  A young man is supposed to have ears and no mouth.  Men of twenty are supposed to listen when people of thirty are talking, and then in turn are supposed to listen when of forty are talking.  As the desire to talk and to be listened to is universal; it is evident that the further along one gets in years, the better chance he has to talk and to be listened to when he goes about in society.  It is a game of life in which no one is favoured, for everyone has a chance of becoming old in his time.

I have crossed more bridges that you have crossed streets.

The longest year of a woman’s life is when she is twenty nine.  She remains twenty nine for three or four or five years.  Apart from this, the fear of letting people know one’s age is nonsensical.

To enjoy health in old age, or to be old and healthy is the greatest of human luck.  There is nothing more beautiful in this world, than a healthy wise old man, with “with ruddy cheeks and white hair”, talking is a soothing wise about life as one who knows it.  Ruddy cheeks and white hair are the symbols of ultimate earthly happiness.

To persons of great vitality we pay compliments by saying that “the older they grow, the more vigorous they are”.  They can be referred as “Old Ginger,” because he gains in pungency with age.

Gone in Uncle Sam with his goatee, for he has taken a safety razor and shaved it off, to make himself look like a fructuous young fool with his chin striking out instead of being drawn in gracefully, and a hard glint shining behind horn-rimmed spectacles.  What a poor substitute that is for the grand old figure.

We must so plan our pattern of life that the golden period lies ahead in old age and not behind us in youth and innocence.  No one can really stop growing old, he can only cheat himself by not admitting that he is growing old.  And since there is no use fighting against nature, on might just as well grow old gracefully.  The symphony of life should end with a grand finale of peace and serenity and material comfort and spiritual contentment and not with the crash of a broken drum or cracked crystals.