Growing old gracefully!

Growing old gracefully!

Cl. Mario D’Couto SDB

To become aware of the fact that one is getting old may not be a very comfortable thing. In fact, it can be frightening! It is thus obvious today as to why more and more and people today are frequenting beauty parlours, gyms and salons just to make themselves look young and fit. Doing these things are not bad or wrong in themselves. It is good and highly recommended but at a certain period of time. We should always remember that our lives are never our own, it is given and so aging is something we need to accept.  

One of the reasons for this terrible angst in old age or at least for those heading towards old age is probably because for an old man, for whom life is nearly over, he looks back reflectively, thinking over his experiences and tries to sum up its meaning. He stands outside as a spectator, pondering over the life that he lived. The young man, on the other hand, looks forward and seeks to understand the meaning of life since he wants to know how to live it. His problem is a problem of how to make life significant, not merely to discover the significance that there has been in it. Archbishop Fulton Sheen gives a beautiful reflection about old age. He says,

People commonly believe that beauty and strength can be preserved indefinitely. Thanks to creams, powder, body lotions and other cosmetics. The truth is that beauty and strength were given solely for purposes of allurement; hence they are at their peak when their family ought to begin.
Strength in a man is not an enduring quality; neither is beauty in a woman. There is something repellent to good taste to see men as they grow old try to appear young with ‘crew cuts,’ as if they were sophomores in college, thus manifesting an immaturity of spirit in trying to recapture a youthful demeanour that has already gone. Women, too, with heavy rouge on cheeks that are 60 or 70 years old, also make but a foolish challenge to the passing of time.

            This does not mean we have to behave or brood over the fact that once a person reaches old age, then that should be “the end” of one’s life. Old age is the time to pass on the baton of beauty and strength to the next generation for while such things can never be preserved in one’s life for eternity, nevertheless, it can be preserved through continuity and this is the cycle of life that I suppose you and I need to accept.     


            While this is true form one particular angle, it can also happen that a person may be physically old but his or her mind is still young and that is to say, that even in one’s old age, the zest to live life fully is still burning within. For me, I feel this is a very healthy approach. We should not stop doing good because of old age although that also implies being reasonable in one’s lifestyle as mentioned before. 

Popular posts from this blog

In the world yet not of the world

Image
  IN THE WORLD YET NOT OF THE WORLD MARIO D’COUTO           Being in the world and yet not of it is something that can be a struggle, at least for me and what I mean by that is in as much as we desire to be good and to do good, God is not going to put a glass jar over us and say that just because we choose to love Him and follow Him more closely, that He is going to shield us from the temptations of this world. To make things clear though, this is not to say that the world in itself is bad or evil nor are the things found in the world either but how we deal with it is what will make us or break us. We all have responsibilities and important things that need our attention. If we are not careful though, our hearts and minds can be consumed with the task of keeping them afloat. Rather than centering ourselves in Christ and letting the other elements of our lives take their rightful place around that center, we can end up shifting our attention fr...
Read more

The Gift of Life

  THE GIFT OF LIFE  Mario D’Couto  The above video may seem to put human existence in a rather pessimistic way as if to say that our lives did not really matter and while no doubt there is some element of truth in it, I still feel that if lived well, there is meaning and purpose to our lives and that none of our lives is some sort of haphazard creation.  As I celebrate my gift of life tomorrow, I suddenly began to think that if we compare ourselves to the vastness of the universe and everything else that exists in it, we may perhaps be nothing more than a tiny dot floating on the surface of the earth and yet in as much as such a thing may appear insignificant, the One who created everything chooses to have a personal relationship with that tiny dot, that is, ourselves. This is something truly uplifting, which gives meaning and purpose to our lives and our existence. At the same time, it is also a reminder for us to stay grounded especially in those moments when w...
Read more

Are you creative?

Image
  ARE YOU CREATIVE? Mario D’Couto                         Can you imagine a world without creativity? What would the world look like if there was no creativity? Well, for all we can expect, it would be pretty boring and dull. There would be no speech, no songs, no tools, no ideas such as love, freedom or democracy. It would be an existence so mechanical and impoverished that none of us would want to be a part of.             To achieve the kind of world we consider human, some people had to dare to break the thrall of tradition. Next, they had to find ways of recording those new ideas or procedures that improved on what went on before. Finally, they had to find ways of transmitting the new knowledge to the generation to come. Those who were involved in this process we call creative. What we call culture or those parts of our selves that we internalized from the social...
Read more