Being old and insisting to stay in the game of life; continuing to function in the work of the young, like they are still young – is somewhat pathetic. It is not that they are not capable anymore, for at times when the president of the U.S.A. was elected at 78, and in Israel there was an actress aged 91 – age is no limit for function. The majority of people who are forced to retire at 67 or 65 in some countries, are very capable to continue to work as efficiently as younger people do.
And when they are forced to retire – they have plenty of life they don’t know what to do with. This is also pathetic.
These are people who did not mature, did not grow until they reach the level of the fruit; a learning, an understanding. Did not turn during their life, the raw material of experience into the growing end result of the fruit of knowing.
But there are few who during their life build a shelf above their experience, a shelf on which rests the fruit of the knowing that they grew during their life. And their center of gravity is being shifted during their aging – from below the shelf to above the shelf. Below the shelf is the naked experience, above the shelf – knowing about the experience.
Such an old wise person, would not like to continue to work as before, this period is over for him, all he wants now is to dedicate himself further to delve and deepen into the fruit of his knowing and wisdom, bath in it, dwell in it, and so experience a great joy and uplifting.
The older he gets, the further he enters into the forest of wisdom. From just experience he has shifted to observation, comprehension and understanding, which he wishes will never end as long as he is alive.
Life experience is grape-juice, wisdom is wine.
“The unexamined life is not worth living“
Gabriel Raam
