De Senectute......About Aging !!

 

For me aging is an irreversible process .... and a challenge..... which begins at birth and we celebrate its progress once a year until we die. Of late I've been dusting off and reading a few of the old classical Latin authors , especially Marcus Tullius Cicero..... statesman , lawyer and all around great thinker. I consider myself one of the lucky ones ...... part of the last generation of those who not only studied Latin for itself as a language during my formative years but who also used Latin as a medium for studying other subjects such as , philosophy , theology , logic , patrology , history , canon law , etc As I look back fondly on that period  with hindsight now that I have reached the safe haven of my mature years I feel that there might still be some unfinished business to attend to ....... tidbits of wisdom to be gleaned and reflected upon from authors too quickly visited and not fully understood back then.

At the present moment I am perusing Cicero's De Senectute ...... About Aging....... and loving every word of it. Although written in 44 BC ........ more than 2000 years ago......it still remains highly pertinent in today's world. 'This work takes the form of Plato's Dialogues wherein three "straightmen " ( Scipio , Leleus and Cato ) question a wiseman ( Cicero himself ) about the great truths of the universe and mankind. At the beginning of the treatise Cicero mentions the four major reproaches that society , on the whole , makes to aging or old age.

" 5. Etenim, cum complector animo, quattuor reperio causas, cur senectus misera videatur: unam, quod avocet a rebus gerendis; alteram, quod corpus faciat infirmius; tertiam, quod privet fere omnibus voluptatibus; quartam, quod haud procul absit a morte. Earum, si placet, causarum quanta quamque sit iusta una quaeque, videamus. VI. A rebus gerendis senectus abstrahit. Quibus? An eis, quae iuventute geruntur et viribus? Nullaene igitur res sunt seniles quae, vel infirmis corporibus, animo tamen administrentur? Nihil ergo agebat Q. Maximus, nihil L. Paulus, pater tuus, socer optimi viri, fili mei? Ceteri senes, Fabricii, Curii, Coruncanii, cum rem publicam consilio et auctoritate defendebant, nihil agebant? "

"Cur senectus misera videatur "..... "Why old age might be seen as miserable " ..... 1) it hinders taking care of business or removes one from active life 2) it renders the body feeble and weak 3) it deprives the elderly of almost all pleasures and 4) it brings us closer to death. Cicero answers each objection in a positive and often humourous manner , especially number 3) dealing with life's pleasures and more particularly those of the flesh. It is his opinion that wild or illicit sex and politics make bad bedfellows as seen in the following quotation from the text ,

"40. Hinc patriae proditiones, hinc rerum publicarum eversiones, hinc cum hostibus clandestina colloquia nasci " ...... "thus betrayals of the fatherland , thus upheavals of political life , thus take rise secret talks with the enemies "..... While Cicero was listing a few examples from his own era I couldn't help but think of our own North American political leaders of recent times and their sexual slip ups or blunders while in office......

All in all it has proved to be  most interesting and pleasant reading on a timely subject. History marches on ...... and aging as well !!