kitarist -> RE: Robbie Krieger (May 20 2020 7:50:34)
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I see now you've added a sentence after "and so on.." in the previous post. I might not have replied had I seen it then; now my jokey reply seems odd/insensitive.. Sorry about that. I just happened to be reading Bertrand Russell's short essay "How to grow old" last Sunday(*) - which is really about how not to grow old, as he says: quote:
In spite of the title, this article will really be on how not to grow old, which, at my time of life, is a much more important subject. My first advice would be to choose your ancestors carefully. [:)] A couple of other paragraphs: quote:
Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river — small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being. and at the very end: quote:
The man who, in old age, can see his life in this way, will not suffer from the fear of death, since the things he cares for will continue. And if, with the decay of vitality, weariness increases, the thought of rest will not be unwelcome. I should wish to die while still at work, knowing that others will carry on what I can no longer do and content in the thought that what was possible has been done. (*) Available for free as part of the collection "Portraits from Memory and Other Essays" here: https://archive.org/details/portraitsfrommem011249mbp/page/n55/mode/2up
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