A Place In The Sunset
By JUDITH HANEY

USNewsLink/January 19, 2003

"No greater misery can of age be told than this: be sure, the young dislike the old." - Cicero. (106 B.C.–43 B.C.). On Old Age.

These days, I race against time.

At age 58, never have I been so aware of my own mortality and its ultimate impact upon my potential for intellectual achievement.

My evolution from being fearless, tackling anything and everything that interested me, to prudence, even caution in how I spend my time has been slow and subtle. Yet today, prudence is my manner, and awareness of the brevity of life is my reality. For in truth, my life has flown by and I want it back.

So, what to do next? What will be my cause? How will I apply my lifetime of knowledge and experience to benefit others? How do I reach back and help others in their journey?

This is not a lament, rather it is an exploration into the future. Hopefully a future of around 20 more good years.

I'm speaking now to you, my peers. You know who you are. You are approaching retirement. You are wondering what you will do with the rest of your lives.  You are seeking answers. You want to be happy, healthy, and in harmony with your surroundings.

Some of you will founder and fall upon the alter of the nothingness of old age. Others will blossom with new found freedom.

And all of us, whether we are happily or unhappily retired, will encounter the same society as our forebears, i.e., the timeless characteristic of human culture that disdains old age and reveres youth, beauty and vitality.

But wait, with our gift of insight, perhaps with any luck at all, we can mentor our culture to reverse the dysfunctional value system that disdains old age. And if we establish that as a goal, that makes us all teachers and the young our disciples.

So, my fellow teachers, let us gather the young ones around us. Let's tell them the story about our time here on earth.

It is a story unlike all others because in our lifetime the world has changed so dramatically that nothing is, or ever will be, like it was before. Thus, in order for our children and their children's children to understand our moment in mankind's history, they should hear it from us. 

And if the goal is to lay down an oral history of our times, another short term benefit that "may" accrue to us is that we earn the esteem of the young thereby ensuring we take our rightful place in the sunset.

To be continued . . .