The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live.
— Joan Borysenko
Today’s paper contains an article about a man who died at age one hundred and ten. A short time before his death, a researcher at Yale asked him how he avoided falling down. He said, “I watch where I am going.” Then the doctor asked his advice on how to live a long life. The man responded, “Be kind to people. Give in sometimes and help people when you can.”
I find advice from the aged is never about what vegetable to eat or how often to exercise. It is about enjoying life and people. It is about being here to love, laugh, serve, and to live fully. They often say things like, “We’re too busy to die,” and that the only thing they fear is driving on the parkway at night.
Just before I attended a conference on aging, I asked my ninety-seven-year-old, quadriplegic father-in-law his advice on the topic. Several years earlier, wearing new bifocals, he had fallen off his porch and seriously injured his spinal cord. He responded, “Tell them to fall on something soft.” A few days later he told me this advice didn’t always work. It seems while he was in therapy, they stood him up and he fell over on his wife and broke her leg. “So tell them to just fall up,” he said.
I laughed but later realized he was telling me something important. When the body becomes tired and can no longer serve, each day becomes work. When you leave this earth, hopefully you will fall up. That’s what my father-in-law did quietly one evening.
Be kind, give in sometimes, and help others.
Peace,
~ Bernie
