Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-08-06
GROWING OLD
BY DOROTHY DIX
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman
Writer.

- ERHAPS the greatest shock that
~ any of us ever get is when we
first have it borne in upon us
that to a cold and appraising public
we seem old.
OF course we know that we have
had more birthdays than we like to
count. We realize, when we stop to
think Of it, that W. are subject to
rheumatic twinges. and that we have
come to favor" our left knees when
we walk, and that we come down
steps carefully one at time instead
of taking them by leaps and bounds,
and that we have to be little careful
about our diet, and have other signs
and symptoms that we could call age
IN another.
But we still feel young and cherish
the fatuous belief that we look young,
and so II is q solar plexus blow when
we realize that We have not escaped
the common human doom, but have
ourselves passed into the scar and
yellow leaf.
The chief reason that we so dread
age is not because it brings the end
Of life in an appreciate distance, but
class of those who are pensioners
upon the good nature and forbearance
Of all with whom we come in contact
Il is so terrible to think Of becoming
one Of those whose personal charm
and interest are gone and who are
endured either from a sense Of duty
or from a desire for graft.
For 1t is undeniable that most old
people are unattractive. They are
tiresome to talk to, boring to listen to.
full of crochets and whims and mar
rowness, and slosenly in dress, and so
IL is no wonder that we shudder as
we see ourselves approaching the era
of senile frowsiness.
That is why when a woman begins
TO perceive crows feet forming about
her eyes she grabs her pocket book
and rushes to the beauty specialist,
and why when man begins to find
difficulty In tying his shoes he takes
up golf and commences to bant. They
are trying to keep young.
Alas, after we are fifty the art Of
keeping young is a lost art, and We
would do better IL we devoted our
energies and thoughts to studying tha
art Of growing old gracefully. |
We talk a great deal about the
faults Of the young and urge them to |
correct them, and about the pitfalls |
into which youth is liable to stumble |
and against which we warn 1t.
But whoever speaks Of the faults |
OF age or the dangers into. which IT. |
may blunder? Yet age has its faults
no less than youth and is Just as
liable to fall into evil habits.
We assume that age is q state OF |
perfection, but the truth is that 1t is
only too often time of utter selfln-
diligence and selfishness, and that is
why old people are so often an Attic
ton grievous to be borne by those |
who have TO live with them. And this
Is why those of us who wish to be |
loved and cherished for ourselves, anu |
not for the prospective requests in
our will, should recognize the faults
that beset age and try to guard against
them. -
Old people excuse certain weak.
nesses In themselves on the ground Of
age just as youth excuses its follies /
In the same fashion A boy must SOW
his wild oats, says the drunken round.
.er. Old people have right TO their /
ways, declare the fossils who make
martyrs of their families and block
public progress. Neither excuse ex-
cuses, but youth, at least, admits its
fault, while age accounts Its weakness
unto itself for virtue. H."
Why then should I'VE not guard
ourselves against the temptations of
age, even as we guarded ourselves
against the temptations of youth? We
might begin with the first temptation,
which Is to be comfortable instead of
smart in dress. It is so easy to de.
generate into the stocking feet and no
corsets state OF ease at home. and
from that the descent into the it.