Old Age or "Mature Age" or "Ripe Age" or...

At a conference last week, a fellow-participant struggled when he wanted to say the almost instinctive phrase "yound and old".

What he struggled about was the word "old".

He did not want to offend the "oldies" present, so hesitatingly tried "mature", then "ripe"...

I was the second oldest person in the room, so I quickly reassured him that, in every traditional culture, old age was respected not scorned, and that I, at least, had not succumbed to the modern illusion that one can be young forever.

The lie-merchants include many marketing experts, scientists and technologists, who are in the business of selling us the make-believe that we can be young forever.

There is a time to be we are born, and a time to be young, a time to be a professional, and a time to be a coach, a time to die and a time to grow old.

This life is only a moment. The life that comes after this, is for eternity.

I have no qualms about old age or about death, since Jesus the Lord offers each person the life by which one can grow old gracefully, and by which death becomes the door to enter happiness eternally.

Happy is the individual who knows how to grow old gracefully, and happy is the individual who has come to understand how to die in the knowledge that death is going to open the door to a life of eternal happiness rather than eternal regret. Sphere: Related Content