The length of our days is seventy years—
or eighty, if we have the strength.
—Psalm 90:10
I recently asked an 80-year-old friend how he was feeling. He said, “I feel good, except for the parts that hurt.” Looking in the mirror that evening, I thought, “I’m glad wrinkles don’t hurt.”
In 1941, life expectancy in the United States was 64.8 years—today, it’s 77.8. Only 6.8 percent of the population was over 65 in 1941—today, it’s 16 percent. Less than half of the U.S. population age 25 and older had a high school diploma in 1941—today, it’s 90 percent.
To be 80 years old in this republic is to have lived through one-third of its existence. And today, our nation’s most rapidly growing age group consists of those 85 and older.
George Santayana said, “There is no cure for birth and death, save to enjoy the interval.”
You don’t stop being positive when you grow old,
you grow old when you stop being positive.