Every day I hear middle-aged people bemoaning the fact that they were
not given advantages or did not seize the opportunities for an
education in early youth.
They believe that their lives would be happier, better and more useful
had an education been obtained.
Scarcely one of these people realizes that middle life is the
schooltime for old age, and that just as important an opportunity is
being missed or ignored day by day for the storing up of valuable
knowledge which will be of great importance in rendering old age
endurable.
Youth is the season to acquire knowledge, middle life is the time to
acquire wisdom.
Old age is the season to enjoy both, but wisdom is far the more
important of the two.
By wisdom I mean the philosophy which enables us to control our
tempers, curb our tendency to severe criticism, and cultivate our
sympathies.
The majority of people after thirty-five consider themselves privileged
to be cross, irritable, critical and severe, because they have lived
longer than the young, because they have had more trials and
disappointments, and because they believe they understand the world
better.
Those are excellent reasons why they should be patient, kind, broad and
sympathetic.
The longer we live the more we should realize the folly and vulgarity
of ill-temper, the cruelty of severe criticism and the necessity for a
broad-minded view of life, manners, morals and customs.
Unless we adapt ourselves to the changing habits of the world, unless
we adopt some of the new ideas that are constantly coming to the front,
we will find ourselves carping, disagreeable and lonely old people as
the years go by.
The world will not stand still for us. Society will not wear the same
clothes or follow the same pleasures, or think the same thoughts when
we are eighty that were prevalent when we were thirty. We must keep
moving with the world or stand still and solitary.
After thirty we must seize every hour and educate ourselves to grow
into agreeable old age.
It requires at least twenty years to become well educated in book and
college lore. If we begin to study at seven we are rarely through with
all our common schools, seminaries, high schools and colleges have to
offer under a score of years.
The education for old age needs fully as many years. We need to begin
at thirty to be tolerant, patient, serene, trustful, sympathetic and
liberal. Then, at fifty, we may hope to have "graduated with honors"
from life's school of wisdom, and to be prepared for another score or
two of years of usefulness and enjoyment in the practice of these
qualities.
Instead of wasting our time in bemoaning the loss of early
opportunities for obtaining an education, let us devote ourselves to
the cultivation of wisdom, since that is free to all who possess
self-control, will power, faith and perseverance.
Begin to-day, at home. Be more tolerant of the faults of the other
members of your household. Restrain your criticisms on the conduct of
your neighbors.
Try and realize the causes which led some people who have gone wrong to
err. Look for the admirable qualities in every one you meet.
Sympathize with the world. Be interested in progress, be interested in
the young. Keep in touch with each new generation, and do not allow
yourself to grow old in thought or feeling.
Educate yourself for a charming old age. There is no time to lose.