​Although chronological age is implacable and inexorable, biological age is readily modifiable.  Good health postpones aging and bad health accelerates it.  It is, therefore, our duty to aim for good health by avoiding smoking and other harmful drugs, abstaining from supplements and treatments that have not been sanctioned by controlled scientific studies, avoid becoming overweight, exercising regularly, consuming alcohol sensibly, eating healthily, managing personal stresses and utilizing preventive medical care.

 

Preventive medicine treats disorders before they cause disease:  a) screening for breast, lung, prostate, colon and cervical cancers, b) taking the recommended vaccines, c) lowering cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar, d) treating osteoporosis before bones begin to fracture, looking after teeth, before they begin to undermine health, and taking measures to prevent skin cancers, such as using a high-factor sunscreen, and e) having regular checkups, all the above help dilute the effects of aging.

 

But, good physical health on its own is never enough.  To cope with aging, we also need mental fortitude.  Such fortitude comes from living an intellectual life, which is enhanced by learning wisdom from those who have preceded us in age and death:

Mohandas K Gandhi (1869-1948)  It is nonsense for you to talk of old age as long as you outrun young men in the race for service and in the midst of anxious times fill rooms with your laughter and inspire youth with hope when they are on the brink of despair.

 

Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964)  Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years.  People grow old by deserting their ideals.  Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul…  You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.

 

Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986)  There is only one solution if old age is not to be an absurd parody of our former life, and that is to go on pursuing ends that give our existence a meaning---devotion to individuals, to groups or to causes, social, political, intellectual, or to creative work.

 

Everyone who is aging needs a personal credo. My credo is enlightenment, because enlightened minds can cope with anything:

 

To excitedly float the river time.

To turn one page only to be enthralled

by yet another and all the chapters

and books that follow.  To toss aloft the

blazing torch for youth to catch the flame and

with it rise.  To flow with life’s currents, nor

struggle against its implacable sweeps.

To know when to stop and where next to go.

To embrace life’s bounty with gratitude

and life’s verdicts with gleeful attitude

nor beg nor grovel for more when the oil

in the lamp runs dry.  To feel ennobled

by having had the chance to do our best.

To make room for the future by bowing

out.  To cheer on change and progress and watch

them skyrocket beyond our eyes and minds.

To view our destined recyclement as

a glorious reunion with earth and heaven.

Blithe are the graces of enlightenment.