Dec 10, 2009

A Different Perspective on Aging

Rebbetzin Tzippora Heller said that complimenting someone by saying they look ten years younger than their age is like saying a person has a BA when they actually have a Phd! By that she means, the older you are the more wisdom you should have accumulated, so saying you look young is the equivalent of discounting your additional years of wisdom.

Dennis Prager said he got the most hate mail after he wrote a column criticizing a 12 year old girl for addressing the Democratic National Convention and ridiculing the Vice President.  He wrote that it's typical of liberal society today to equate children with adults and to think that a child has a right to the floor, just like an adult, even though a child has not accomplished anything of note and has no wisdom.

On a more positive note, someone observed it used to be that a Bubby looked Bubby-like but nowadays we have young looking Bubbies (some of whom are still having children of their own).  Their comment was that this is a foretaste of Yemos Ha'Moshiach when death will be eradicated and even before that, the pasuk says a "naar" (young person) will die at 100.

1 comment:

  1. I just read an interesting statistic: that only one person in 2 billion will live to be 116 or older. That means that as people age, their remaining years become more precious.
    In the beginning of life, we are awed by the innocence, trust, and wonder of the world that the newborn exhibits. Toward the end, we admire the life they led and what they are leaving behind. As people age, they see friends pass away and eventually their spouses. The fact that the years that remain of their lives are few means that like the newborn who is still close to the pure world he came from, the older person is beginning to accept where he or she is going.

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