I have, as of yet, avoided caducuty.
Emotionally, creatively, I feel younger,
not older. Is it true that the older we
get, the more wisdom we accrue?
It seems that way to me. My scope is
broader, my vision paradoxically
keener, my understanding deeper,
my tolerance for intolerance
virtually extinct. I have never been
able to brook unkindness, cruelty in any
of its manifold manifestations. The
notions of differences among members
of the human race--e.g. degrees of social
status, the poor and the wealthy, one
IQ better than another--all and others
are specious, bootless. We all are one.
Our shared worth is within, not without.
I have gotten wiser, not older. While my
life has gotten longer, my patience for not
knowing right from wrong is shorter.
The years of my living that remain will be
like dances of insight and joy, not lugubrious
ones. I shall live them in the sunshine of
caring and sharing.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks