Don't live long, live rightly.

"We rail every day at Fate, saying 'Why has A. been carried off in the very middle of his career?  Why is not B. carried off instead?  Why should he prolong his old age, which is a burden to himself as well as to others?'

"But tell me, pray, do you consider it fairer that you should obey Nature, or that Nature should obey you?  And what difference does it make how soon you depart from a place which you must depart from sooner or later?  We should strive, not to live long, but to live rightly for to achieve long life you have need of Fate only, but for right living you need the soul.

 A life is really long if it is a full life; but fullness is not attained until the soul has rendered to itself its proper Good, that is, until it has assumed control over itself.  What benefit does this older man derive from the eighty years he has spent in idleness?  A person like him has not lived; he has merely tarried awhile in life.  Nor has he died late in life; he has simply been a long time dying.

He has lived eighty years, has he? That depends upon the date from which you reckon his death! Your other friend, however, departed in the bloom of his manhood.  But he had fulfilled all the duties of a good citizen, a good friend, a good son; in no respect had he fallen short.  His age may have been incomplete, but his life was complete.  The other man has lived eighty years, has he? No, he has existed eighty years, unless perchance you mean by 'he has lived' what we mean when we say that a tree 'lives.' "

--Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius 103 (tr Gummere)

When I was young, I was often frustrated by the old saying: "youth is wasted on the young." I didn't resent this because I happened to be young, but because I was fairly certain that it had nothing to do with either being young or old. Life is wasted on fools, whether they be old or young.

We live in conflicting times. On the one hand, we are told to venerate old age, because old age brings with it the benefits of experience and insight. That may be a remnant of a past attitude. Scratch the surface a bit, of course, and you will find a different story. Youth is worshiped like a god. Vitality and good looks are what count. So which is it?

I once knew a fellow who tried to grow a beard at sixteen so he would look older. I later knew a middle-aged woman who put frosty highlights into her hair so she would look younger. Both wanted to be something that they weren't.

I have known many people, both old or young, who were full of ignorance, greed, and the love of petty things. I have known many people, both old or young, who were full of truth, charity, and the love of great things. In my experience, the line is drawn pretty much right down the middle. 

My life is hardly complete when it is measured in years. My life becomes complete when it is measured by my character. Living is not mere existence. Living is doing well.

Written on 5/5/2007

Image: Leonardo Da Vinci, An Old Man and a Youth Facing One Another (c. 1500)