The unstoppable, unmerciful grinding of time wears perpetually on our temporally-limited bodies. While the mind progresses and learns from the mistakes that only age can teach, the physical structure that houses these shining insights inexorably decays. It is a process with which we all become too familiar as we watch once-immortal parents and loved ones become increasingly fragile over the many years. Some handle it well, accepting new limits, while others seem to obstinately refuse to recognize the changes their bodies have endured. Mom refuses to stop driving even though she continually has fender-benders. Dad steadfastly walks without a cane or a walker in spite of his many falls and knowledge of the risks of fracturing a hip. While changing others and their behavior is a trick that time rarely teaches, it is always prudent to learn from the errors of others and to take your own sage advice when time comes for you.
See Stuart Bradford, Things I’ll Do Differently When I’m Old, The New York Times, December 5, 2017.
Special thanks to Lewis Saret (Attorney, Washington, D.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.
