This is the first in a series of articles about those who are over 85
Research showed that people in their 70s and 80s, far from wallowing in despair, were happier than their younger counterparts. What did they know that younger people did not? For almost all of human history, societies turned to the oldest people for advice and wisdom. Now, that wisdom often sat unheard.
What does the over 85 crowd have to teach us? “The answers have been elusive and surprising. Some of the six elders did not feel they were sources of wisdom — weren’t the young people, with their breakthroughs in science and technology, wiser? Often the subjects were modest about how much they had to offer. Ruth Willig, a 91-year-old living in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, said she had not been a caregiver — then she recounted long years of caring for her husband and sister, ” writes John Leland of the New York Times.
“Lesson No. 1: Do Not Dwell On Your Own Personal Sacrificies”
As John Sorensen, a 91-year-old man who no longer wants to live without his late partner, put it: “The only thing about dying is that I won’t be alive long enough to enjoy the fact that I finally died.”
“Lesson No. 2: A sense of humor helps”
“Lessons 3 through 99: See lesson No. 2 above”