Live Long And Love It

“First you forget names; then you forget faces; then you forget to zip up your fly; and then you forget to unzip your fly.”

Branch Rickey

I’ve Been Thinking. . . about Branch Rickey’s comment. I’m not sure why I chuckle to myself every time I read it. Maybe it’s because I’ve played the first half of my life (plus a few) and have attempted to lightheartedly anticipate the future. Or maybe it’s because I’ve experienced ‘most’ of what he has talked about.

Of all the classic quotes and thoughts I’ve collected over the years, my file on aging is the most entertaining and enlightening.

One of my favorites. . . “I’m finally learning that I’m about as old as I feel right after I demonstrate how young I feel.”

Columnist Doug Larson writes, “The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get the urge to throw a snowball!” Now if you think you’re too old to be throwing snowballs just remember; you’re never too old to become younger. It’s not how old you are that matters; but how you are old.

Most of us at one time or another contemplates retirement. “Retirement at 65 is ridiculous,” spouted George Burns. “When I was 65, I still had pimples.” Later, Burns was more emphatic about retirement; “I’ll never retire because there isn’t a thing I can’t do now that I didn’t do at 18...which gives you an idea of how pathetic I was at 18.” Maybe this is why at age 96 George Burns signed a five year deal with Las Vegas’s Rivera Hotel instead of one for ten years, because he wasn’t sure the resort would last ten years. Leave it to George Burns to add his unique flair to the aging process.

You can be sure Mark Twain remained youthful with his imaginative mind. He once commented, “When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not.” I’m sure he also found it convenient to forget those things he found less than pleasurable. His classic comment that “age is mostly a matter of mind, if you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter” served him well.

Washington Irving reminded us that, “whenever a man’s friends begin to compliment him about looking young, he may be sure that they think he is growing old.” Bernard M. Baruch would have kept Irving’s comment in perspective with his youthful belief that “old age is always fifteen years older than I am.” I especially like that one.

“I think we’re finally at a point where we’ve learned to see death with a sense of humor,” Katherine Hepburn said in an interview. “I have to. When you’re my age, it’s as if you’re a car. First a tire blows, and you get it fixed. Then a headlight goes, and you get that fixed. And then one day, you drive into a shop and the man says, “Sorry, Miss, they don’t have this make anymore.”

Art Linkletter once told an audience, “There are 4 stages of humankind, Infancy...childhood...adolescence...and obsolescence.”

Rabbi Harold Kushner took a more philosophical approach and offered this insight: “I would rather think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to come together and make sense.”

Bob Hope declared that he “discovered the secret of eternal youth. I lie about my age.” Face it, we can lie as long as we want, but the longer we lie the older we get. What’s critical is that each year we receive the gift of life; we live it with more fullness than the year before.

“We have added years to man’s life,” commented Louise M Orr. “Now we face an even greater challenge - adding life to these years. In other words, we have given the American people the opportunity to enjoy nearly twice as many years as did their ancestors and now we have the obligation to help turn old age into something more than a chronological period of life.”

Maybe we could benefit from the reflective thinking of baseball great Ernie Banks. “I don’t live in the past. Some people tell me they’ve got this mental image of me frozen in time, like it was 1958 forever. Well, it’s not, I like getting old. Just remember, you only live once. And if you do it right, once is enough.”

Let’s let Douglas MacArthur have the final word on this subject. These were his comments in his farewell address to the cadets at West Point.

“Whatever your years, there is in every being’s heart the love of wonder, the undaunted challenge of events, and an unfailing childlike feel for “what next” on the job and in the game of life. You’re as young as your faith, as old as your doubts; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair. In the central place of your heart, there is a recording chamber. So long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, and courage; so long are you young.”

“A long life may not be good enough, but a good life is long enough.”


Edward B. LeWinn, M.D.