Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-11-08
Rx howard WHITMAN

Robert Browning wrote of old
age as the "hest" that was "yet
to be-; he invited others to en-
bark joyfully along with him or
the voyage into "the last Of life
for which the first was made"
1t is likely that a good many
people who have read Brown
ing's line have taken the view
that, sure. it's all right for the
poet to wax lyrical about old age
but when the chips are dowr
and you find yourself Just plain
old-it's not pleasant.
Such a view can be quite cor
rect. There is nothing about ole
age per Sc which makes it auto.
matically q grand and glorious
period Of life any more thar
childhood. youth, or middle age
are automatically grand anc
glorious. Old age may be eithel
successful or unsuccessful, just
as the other segments Of life
may be.
Maturity Is Key
The major factor upon which
success in the latter years de.
ponds is maturity.
Maturity is a coming home Al
last to what you really are. i
occurs after devious wanderings
in which, like Ulysses stoppinl
at various isles, one tarries in the
strange places Of assumed Of
affected personality and at Ions
last, IT, neither marooned mol
sunk. is able to reach the shores
Of home.
Out Of her own successful com.
pletion Of the voyage Anne Nor.
row Lindbergh has written, per.
haps one can at last in middle
age. If not earlier be completely
oneself. And what a liberation
that would bel"
One Of the misfortunes of oui
time is that fewer and fewer
people successfully complete the
voyage. They get older. all right
but they do so in a listless calm
somewhere offshore, never quite
reaching the treasure island Of
maturity.
This is an outcome Of our cul-
ture. which glorifies youth and
pays little tribute to age. There
is less incentive for the middle
aged to strive on toward new and
distant goals, for they are aware
that the world of the youth wor-
shippers will be too busy to pay
much heed to them If they Dc
strive and even If they succeed
While some cultures of mankind
have venerated 'the aged, we
merely patronize them.
We give no thought to turning
to the people older than we are
for a quality known as wisdom
a quality identified with age in
every period of man except our
own.
Wisdom Of Age
Perhaps no generation ever
has been so desperately in need
Of the wisdom of age. What Il
today's enormous amount oil
mental illness but tragic evidence
that we are a generation which
does not know how to live? Life
in our era becomes something
which is fought with. wrestlec
with. strained over. run away
from - instead Of plunged into
and accepted.
Buddha, contemplating under
a Bo tree. gave to the world a
timeless philosophy of accept
ance. He asked that man throw
himself willingly into the pro-
cess of life and allow himself
to dissolve into it, to mix ur
with it. to become lost in it, anc
freely to flow along with it.
Occasionally. but too rarely
we ind the wisdom Of accep-
lance in our world today. And
when we find it, it usually stems
from the gentleness of age
Then there is neither alonenes.
nor neurosis nor fear of death
Henri Matisse, at eighty-one
four years before he died, saic
with the contentment Of a mar
who had accepted life in its
totally. My bags are packed.
am waiting for the last train"
/ know q woman in her Dos
twice a widow. who lives alone
and is the object of constant
concern to her married children
Once her daughter telephoneo
her and asked, full Of anxiety
Are you all alone. Mother?" The
aged woman replied to her
daughter. IAN the people in the
world are with me-and God 4
with me-"
The city Of st. Petersburg
Florida. is q community-onC
might almost say an industry
of the aged. / visited there moi
long ago and saw people in Their
COS, 70s. and sos sitting in the
sun on the green benches which
line the sidewalk. Old couple,
come from all over the country
to winter in the sun.
At FIRST to walk among then
IS depressing. for one notes theil
infirmities: the many who US,
canes and crutches, the many
who are bent and stopped, thu
many who have lost some facult,
OF sgiht or hearing, the many
with drawn and shriveled bodies
One comes too quickly 10 til.
thought that life is cruel to *
use Us UP physically.
Spiritual Aging
But after a while in st. Peters.
burg this FIRST feeling is sup
planted with another. One be
comes aware Of something IA
more important than the physi
cal ageing process - q process
quite the reverse.
Here instead Of decay Their