On Old Age
Originally Published in the Kansas Government Journal – March/April 2024
The history of one generation complaining about the next generation extends to ancient times. The poet Horace in 23 B.C. wrote this passage:
What do the passing days not diminish?
We, worse than our sires, were begotten by them,
They, worse than theirs, and soon we too will bear
A progeny more wicked still.[1]
The idea that things are getting worse is prevalent in many aspects of modern-day society, as well. Such a mindset may feel daunting, particularly for those of us serving in the public sector. Yet is such a mindset accurate or worthwhile?
In a recent article in The Atlantic[2], David Brooks describes the current era of catastrophizing that dominates people of all political persuasions. Even where there are clear indicators of progress and hope, the narrative too often focuses on the negative. One problem of this trend is that bitter denouncements do not move a nation (or a city) toward improvement; “it [only] happens when leaders can convey a plausible vision of the common good.”[3]
In recent weeks, this idea of setting a vision of optimism and intentionality has been on my mind. The League’s General Counsel, John Goodyear, welcomed his first child—a baby girl—into this world in early February. When new a new life arrives, it is a reminder why serving well is such a worthwhile pursuit. Aspirational leadership can be challenging when calamity is the music that everyone is singing. But despite this trend of pessimism, the hope of leaving things in a better place for the next generation is the best of goals.
Lessons from Past Thinkers
When John’s daughter arrived, it set me on a path of reading with an eye on the stages of life. Two authors wrote essays with the same titles: “On Old Age.” The first is by Cicero[4] and the second is by Ralph Waldo Emerson.[5] Both authors emphasized themes that seem relevant and hopeful about why we should focus on serving well—particularly as it relates to governance.
Cicero observed that wisdom and experience are two virtues we can acquire in exchange for youth: “The great affairs of life are not performed by physical strength...but by deliberation, character, [and] expression of opinion.” While age assuredly does not guarantee wisdom, it does provide the opportunity to obtain it.
Consider this exchange from the movie, Gladiator, where the Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, is listening to his son, Commodus:
You wrote to me once, listing the four chief virtues: Wisdom, justice, fortitude, and temperance. As I read the list, I knew I had none of them. But I have other virtues, father. Ambition. That can be a virtue when it drives us to excel. Resourcefulness, courage, perhaps not on the battlefield, but...there are many forms of courage. Devotion, to my family and to you. But none of my virtues were on your list.
Commodus’s resentful response led to his downfall, but he missed a key point from his father’s message: those virtues of wisdom, justice, fortitude, and temperance can all be added by pursuing them intentionally. None of us should reach a point where we conclude, “whelp, I’ve reached the pinnacle. I’m as good as I can be.”
The reason it is important to continue pursuing virtue extends from another observation by Cicero: “It will be said old men are fretful, fidgety, ill-tempered, and disagreeable. If you come that that, they are also avaricious. But these are faults of character, not of the time of life.” If Cicero is correct, there is time to improve, no matter the stage of life.
Sitting on my desk is a paperweight with the inscription, “Momento Mori.” Some records suggest that a servant would accompany Caesar during triumphs—the great Roman celebrations of military success—and whisper the phrase in his ear: remember you are mortal. This may strike you as morbid, which perhaps it is. Yet it reminds me to use well the short years we have, moment to moment and day to day. Which all circles back to newborns and old age.
Planting Seeds for the Future
When we look at mortality, there seems to be a few natural responses. Some pursue a carpe-diem approach: eat, drink, and be merry. Some choose to ignore the reality or embrace a nihilistic stupor. But Cicero, Emerson, and others of their ilk would instead argue that the numbering our days should prompt urgency—urgency for wisdom and urgency to use our time well.
As Cicero looked at time, he leaned into an agricultural theme that should resonate in Kansas: “He plants his trees to serve a race to come.” Emerson similarly focused on this idea that there is fulfillment in contributing to something larger than oneself, something that lasts beyond today. Such a mindset is at the heart of serving in the public realm and should prompt a sense of hope in what is to come.
I think of this hope, albeit with a sense of irony, when considering the generations that follow my own. While the complaints by one generation about succeeding generations is as old as antiquity, the inescapable reality is that it is the complaining generation that teaches and models what the subsequent generation becomes. Yet this reality is where the optimism resides.
We each have an opportunity to build and nurture the people and places that will follow. That is the privilege that should excite and spur urgency to grow in wisdom and pass it on as best we can. In the days following John’s news of his daughter’s birth, I kept coming back to this idea that those of us in local government have an opportunity to build communities that are worth inheriting by future generations. It may look different across the hundreds of cities in Kansas, but we all want vibrant places to call home, and out state gives each of us the tools of self-governance to make it a reality.
While Cicero and Emerson noted the ills of aging, they wisely turned the focus on how much good can accompany the aging process. One of those benefits is the perspective to realize that when a new birth arrives, it is an opportunity to celebrate. It is an opportunity for hope. So too are the moments in your own community, when even small victories bring an opportunity to celebrate. Just like a child’s growth or a community’s growth, it occurs little by little, moving toward the aspiration to become more than it is today.
Sources
[1] Horace. The Odes: New Translations by Contemporary Poets. Edited by J. D. McClatchy. Princeton University Press, 2002.
[2] Brooks, David. “The Zeitgeist of Doom: America Has Big Problems, But I Also See a Lot of Progress.” The Atlantic, January/February 2024. Available at: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/01/cultural-pessimism-america-self-fulfilling-effects/677261/.
[3] Id.
[4] Cicero, Marcus Tullius. On Friendship and Old Age. Translated by E. S. Shuckburgh. Paperback, March 9, 2017.
[5] Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Old Age.” The Atlantic, (January 1862).
