Why We’re Never Too Old To Dream A New Dream

Quote attributed to both novelist and spirituality writer C.S. Lewis and motivational speaker Les Brown. Throughout history, older people have accomplished major feats. (Photo courtesy of quotemaster.org).

There’s an intriguing passage in “The Rule of St. Benedict” encouraging monastery leaders to seek the opinions of the youngest members as well as the most senior in tackling a major decision. Benedict’s rationale is that “the Lord often reveals what is better to the younger.”

It was a revolutionary concept in St. Benedict’s hierarchical, patriarchal society of the 6th century.

For decades now in the U.S., we’ve had a fixation on the young. It began with the Fifties and Sixties boomer generation that rightly critiqued the hypocrisy and mistakes of their forebears. Flash forward then to 2020’s stunning reversal: the election of the oldest person ever to take the presidential oath of office.

Should we fret about having a president who will turn 82 in four years? Not if history is a guide.

While some will lament that the torch of leadership isn’t passing to a new generation, I find it heartening as I tick up in years myself. Many in their “sunset years” are still dreaming dreams and making significant contributions.

Many people, like President-elect Joe Biden, achieve major goals in in their “golden” or “sunset” years. (Photo by Brother Paul Quenon, 79).

“Age has no reality except in the physical world. The essence of a human being is resistant to the passage of time,” novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez reminds us. “Our inner lives are eternal, which is to say that our spirits remain as youthful and vigorous as when we were in full bloom.”

One of my heroes is Bob Abernethy, whom I worked for on a national PBS-TV program called “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.” Bob retired from NBC after a distinguished reporting career in Washington. He enrolled in Yale Divinity School, then went on to establish the only news show reporting on faith and values on network television. He was 69 at the time.

Broadcast journalist Bob Abernethy earned a divinity degree and created a religion news show on PBS when he was 69. (Photo courtesy of PBS-TV)

Bob remained anchor of “Religion & Ethics” until it went off the air in 2017, when he was 89.

To be sure, our mental acuity slows as we age, but we also gain some advantages.

“Wisdom is the ability to see patterns where others don’t see them, to extract common points from prior experience and use those to make predictions about what is likely to happen next,” says Daniel J. Levitin, a neuroscientist and author of “Successful Aging.”

Older people “aren’t as fast, perhaps, at mental calculations and recalling names, but they tend to be much better and faster at seeing the big picture,” Levitin adds.

Anna Mary Robertson Moses, better known as the artist Grandma Moses, didn’t begin painting until she turned 76, largely because her fingers could no longer hold an embroidery needle.

Michelangelo was working on the architectural design for the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Rome when he was 88.

In 1998, Sen. John Glenn, one of the original Mercury astronauts, returned to space, 36 years after his original flight. He was 77 at the time.

“Too many people, when they get old, think they have to live by the calendar,” Glenn remarked.

Astronaut John Glenn training for his second space flight in 1998, when he was 77 years old. (Photo courtesy of Time).

The women in my daily online Zumba fitness classes also give me hope. Most are over 55 and some are approaching their eighties. I once asked a 33-year-old friend of mine how old she thought our Zumba instructor is. “Forty?” she ventured. Nope. “Fifty?” Nope. Try 64.

I’m not amazed by any of this. Some of my best role models are Catholic religious sisters. When they “retire” from teaching or some other work, it just means that they move on to a new ministry. They work until they can’t any longer.

Social justice advocate and originator of the Nuns on the Bus national tours, Sister Simone Campbell, is still going strong at 75. Sister Helen Prejean, whose life was chronicled in the film “Dead Man Walking,” continues to write and advocate for an end to the death penalty. Sister Helen is 81.

Sister Simone Campbell, 75, isn’t slowing her Nuns on the Bus social justice effort any time soon. (Photo courtesy of Time magazine).

“Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art,” Eleanor Roosevelt once observed.

The former First Lady continued to write, speak and advocate for women’s rights and human rights until her death in 1962 at age 78.

I’ve just mentioned a few of the “oldsters” still making a significant contribution. I can add many others … infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, 79; journalist Leslie Stahl, 78; actress Meryl Streep, 71.

I like to think I will show as much stamina and commitment as they do when I reach their age. I look forward to becoming a beautiful “work of art?” How about you?