Many years ago I read a mystery book by Edgar Wallace and I remember that he described his detective, a Scotland Yard inspector, as being “very old.” He added that he was “more than fifty.”


I think that the concept of old age is gradually changing. Nowadays people stay young much longer. Still I often see relatively young patients who feel old and old patients who, surprisingly, feel and act as though they were very young. After fifty, I think the age that counts is the age that people feel and project, not the age that is counted in years.

I am also remembering a book that I read a long time ago, called “The Way of All Flesh,” a wonderful autobiographical novel written by Samuel Butler. One of most beautiful statements that he makes in his book is that “spring, like youth, is an overpraised season.” He felt very happy in the autumn of his life.


Also one of the most beautiful of Frank Sinatra’s records is called “The Autumn of My Years.”


An interesting and important characteristic of human beings is that they grow. At the beginning of our lives our physical growth is overwhelming, so we dedicate it a lot of attention. Gradually we reach adult size and cease to grow physically. In later years we even became somewhat smaller.


But internally we never cease to grow. Some people grow more than others, but we all grow. We all mature, most of us become better human beings. 


George Bernard Shaw once wrote a play called “Back to Methuselah,” that tells us of two scientists engaged in producing longer lives for human beings. They felt that life is too short, so we do not take it seriously. If we had to live for 300 or 400 years we would learn more, get more experience, and would be much more concerned about making our world a better place to live.


Well, humanity’s life span is gradually increasing. Maybe in a couple of centuries we will reach 300 years, if the planet survives the continuous aggressions of the numerous careless individuals. But even in our present life span there is much that we can achieve.
  
I feel fortunate that I am still learning things. Maimonides, a famous philosopher and physician of the 12th Century, used to pray this way: “May there never develop in me the notion that my education is complete, but give me the strength and leisure and zeal continually to enlarge my knowledge.” This will also be my prayer, may I keep learning as long as I am capable of doing it.


So I am still working, I am engaged in two research projects and I still enjoy participating in medical meetings. I still see patients and perform operations.


I am now eighty years old. So what?

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