Riper years, and what's next?

In the early days of TV, there was a great program called, “Life begins at Eighty!” Each week wonderful men and women in their 80s would share insights into their hobbies, activities, and busy lives. Oddly enough, you didn’t hear these folks discussing diseases or diagnoses. They were too busy living life.

Decay and decline are not laws. Someone wisely observed, “You don’t stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.” The women in my family are incredible. And they do laugh a lot. See laughter blog.

An amazing octogenarian aunt has just begun going to college for the first time in her life. She is loving her teachers, her classes, her classmates. She’s working hard and earning some of the best grades in the class. And her dear husband is cheering her on.

Tired of the low activity level retirement was providing, something in her intuitively rebelled against the world’s “over the hill” attitude. Auntie is living this sentiment by Mary Baker Eddy who thought a lot about what advancing years should bring. Eddy wrote, “Men and women of riper years and larger lessons ought to ripen into health and immortality, instead of lapsing into darkness or gloom.”

And, “Let us then shape our views of existence into loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight.”

Would you believe, as this column was being written, a friend emailed the following link. It’s a great video example of women of riper years having a ball!