Everything Old Is New Again, Even Aging.

I don’t recall taking any philosophy courses in my undergrad days. And even if I did, I couldn’t tell you who or what I read, especially of the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers. Or even which was which.

Fortunately there is google, which will drive us willingly around every corner of the interweb in search of whatever. It was during one of those crazy rides that I discovered the Roman philosopher, Cicero, who in 44 BC wrote a treatise, aka, an essay, on aging, handily enough titled “On Old Age.”

Now I’ve yet to read the work, though it’s definitely on The List. But I have been reading about it, including online links that kindly summarize, in modern English, some of what Cicero had to say about aging.

One such link I was lucky to discover about an hour ago: the Introduction to How To Grow Old: Ancient Wisdom for the Second Half of Life: Marcus Tullius Cicero. Published by Princeton University Press (2016), the book is a translation of “On Old Age” by scholar Philip Freeman, who also wrote the introduction. In it, Freeman nicely summarizes Cicero’s main points about aging, three that I found especially interesting:

3. There are proper seasons to life.

Nature has fashioned human life so that we enjoy certain things when we are young and others when we are older. Attempting to cling to youth after the appropriate time is useless. If you fight nature, you will lose. 

6. The mind is a muscle that must be exercised.

Cicero has the main character of his book learn Greek literature in his later years and carefully recall the events of the day before going to sleep each night. Whatever technique works, it is vital to use our minds as much as possible as we grow older.

7. Older people must stand up for themselves.

Or as Cicero says, “Old age is respected only if it defends itself, maintains its rights, submits to no one, and rules over its domain until its last breath.” The later years of life are no time for passivity.

As for #6, I’ve decided to exercise my own mind muscle by actually reading Freeman’s translation of Cicero. I’m hoping that he will gently lead me through the thoughts of a man who not only lived over two thousand years ago, but also recorded those thoughts in Latin.

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And speaking of exercising that muscle, I've started a second blog that chronicles my return to the faith of my youth after a 45 year absence. It will feature posts I expect to be fun, informative, hopefully illuminating, and perhaps a bit cranky.

https://fromthedeskoftheprodigaldaughter.blogspot.com