[Valin]

Age and deceit, beat youth and skill...everytime.

[Billthedrill]

My gracious - should the fellow hit 80 he won't be rereading War And Peace, he'll be writing it. Time for the old feller to start another hobby. I'd recommend haiku.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

MATLOCK!

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

Adolescence has been stretched out, at least, into one's 30s, perhaps one's early 40s.

Oh good, I've still got a couple more years (perhaps...)

[Revolting cat!]

Jane Wyman's kid is now 70, so what?!

[WV Mountain Mama]

I was 36 when I started reading this...

[AD from SpringBay]

I also grew up at a time when the goal was to be adult as soon as possible, while today--the late 1960s is the watershed moment here--the goal has become to stay as young as possible for as long as possible. The consequences of this for the culture are enormous. That people live longer only means that they feel they can remain kids longer: uncommitted to marriage, serious work, life itself. Adolescence has been stretched out, at least, into one's 30s, perhaps one's early 40s.

Bump that idea. And, to everyone griping about how long this article was, you can always stop reading and move on.

[bert]

The poster above my desk says......

"Age and treachery will overcome youth and skill"

[Doctor Don]

Mr. Epstein has lived for 70 years, and he has not decided if God exists. That IMHO is a failed life! He has to endure the foibles of advancing age without hope in an after life. For me, This world is not my home, I'm justa passin through, My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue........so go the words of that wise old spiritual.

[AnnaZ]

I liked this piece quite a bit. Thank you for posting it.

[Tares]

bttt

[goodnesswins]

"Another diminution I begin to notice is in the realm of tact. I have less of it. I feel readier than ever before to express my perturbation, impatience, boredom. Why, with less time remaining, hold back? "I wonder," I find myself wanting to say to a fairly large number of people, "if you haven't greatly overestimated your charm?" Perhaps, though, I do better to hold off on this until I reach 80, as I hope to be able to do; it will give me something to live for."

I LIKED that paragraph. As to aging.....we just spent 5 days cross country skiing in Yellowstone Nat'l Park.....anywhere from 4 - 7.5 miles a day....at the 6,000 to 8,000 elevation foot level. In temps of -7 to 25 degrees. Top age among the group of 11? 63. One person was around 36...the rest were all older. Our leader/guide was a 57 year old woman....

[PhilDragoo]

Twenty years ago an eighty-year-old millionaire on a cane warned me, "Take my advice, don't ever grow old, it's not worth the aggravation."

But I'm as aggravating as I have time to be. That irritability thing being a life form identifier.

Thank you for this irritatingly long piece, as sooner or later everyone is shown the cell of tedium once reserved for Yuri I. Nosenko.

The challenge of every age is to discover Graham Greene's Ways of Escape.

Cue Lynyrd Skynyrd.

[kabar]

An exercise in self-absorbtion. Who cares about Epstein?