Many traditional societies venerate the role of sage.
For example, Chinese philosophy assumes that a person does not have the capacity for true wisdom until one has experienced all emotions of life. In Taoism, the older person who becomes a sage is the model of a life of freedom and contentment to which all aspire, a model that helps us come to terms with our own mortality. The book contains inspirational passages related to aspects of human aging and later life. Marlowe and Company, New York, December 2000. In bookstores now.