“Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind. It is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep spring of life.”

— Samuel Ullman, businessman and poet

In our youth we pretty much ignore old age. As it applies to ourselves, that is. It’s deemed irrelevant because, in a certain sense, it is. But eventually, at some point in time the issue of aging catches up to us and we’re forced to at least acknowledge old age as a condition that will one day, if all goes well, include us.

And then, of course, we walk through “middle age,” whatever that is, which can be defined, really, any way you like. And then, if fortunate enough to reach old age, we’re offered the opportunity to either go gentle into that good night or “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” as Welsh poet Dylan Thomas has so famously written.

I intend to go as gently as possible into that good night, I hope, by giving something back to the world: some of the knowledge that I’ve collected, some of the decisions I’ve made that saved me from serious harm, some of the insight gained through the thoughts and........

© Finger Lakes Times