If you’re going to respect your elders, how about you start with 93-year-old Roger Angell. Roger just wrote a piece for the New Yorker that’s so utterly beautiful that he’s captured the world’s attention.
Roger has lived through two world wars, the invention of television, the internet, the first moon landing and the discovery of bubble gum.
He’s insightful, hilarious, and has five wonderful life lessons to share – which should be read by people of every age. Read these and walk away substantially wiser than when you began…
1. If you’re lucky enough to reach 90, people will be surprised you’re still alive.
“How great you’re looking! Wow, tell me your secret!” they kindly cry when they happen upon me crossing the street or exiting a dinghy or departing an X-ray room, while the little balloon over their heads reads, “Holy shit—he’s still vertical!”
2. It is inevitable that with a long, fulfilling life, there will also be a degree of loss.
“We geezers carry about a bulging directory of dead husbands or wives, children, parents, lovers, brothers and sisters, dentists and shrinks, office sidekicks, summer neighbors, classmates, and bosses, all once entirely familiar to us and seen as part of the safe landscape of the day. It’s no wonder we’re a bit bent.”