Charles C. Milliken: Concerning old age

I should confess up front that I have plagiarized the title for today's reflections from the Roman orator and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero, who wrote a much longer essay in 44 BCE (Before the Christian Era). As I always reminded students, plagiarization is the one crime, if confessed in the commission, ceases to be a crime. The recently departed president of Harvard might have come to a better end had she been my student.

If you have a lot of spare time, you might read Cicero’s essay, although I warn you if 10 words would suffice to make a point, Cicero used one hundred. (People appeared to have longer attention spans back then, and rather than watching TV for hours, would read for hours.) So old age has been a perennial concern for those who manage to attain it. Obviously, given the Presidential race now before us, the topic has achieved great salience.

Cicero in his essay goes to great lengths to show how many advantages old age has, which he feels necessary to counteract the all too common tendency for men to hope for old age, then complain incessantly when they get it. Human folly, as he puts it, but isn’t complaining when we get what we want quite common?

I, two weeks older than President Biden, am old by any definition. Although I miss certain aspects of youth, I am grateful I don’t have some of the burdens. I don’t have to punch a time clock, but instead rely on steady income thanks to those who do punch time clocks. The cares and concerns of a young family man are no longer mine. Neither are the joys, but at least I have wonderful memories. For what is life except an accumulation of memories? Like a trip abroad, when you get home all you have are bills, pictures, and memories. I no longer have the bills.

Chronological age does not always line up with age as lived. I thank God that I have as much health and energy as I do, when so many others don’t. The vigor of youth has largely departed, but still I could traipse hundreds of miles across Spain last fall. I can still write (how well, gentle reader, I leave to you), I can still teach using coherent sentences, when others are not so blessed. Listening to tapes of President Biden speaking 20 years ago compared to today makes clear the ravages of time that, sooner or later, are visited on all of us. Although I do not support President Biden, I think it unfortunate that people blame him for what he cannot help.

Cicero contrasted the impetuousness and rashness of youth, with the calm wisdom and prudence of old age. Alas, I wish it were so. If President Biden were exhibiting calm wisdom and prudence in what he advocates he would be a shoo-in for re-election. And can any of us, no matter who we support, mention President Trump and calm wisdom and prudence in the same sentence? I compare the two candidates as one who can’t help himself due to infirmities and the other who can but won’t help himself because he refuses to grow up.

But whatever the advantages and disadvantages of old age, it won’t last long. If you visit a life expectancy table, you will note that for every decile before eighty the odds are strongly in your favor of achieving the next decile. At seventy, you have a 65% chance of reaching eighty. When President Biden and I turned eighty, we had only a thirty-five percent chance of making it to ninety. For every sundown, the odds of seeing the next sunrise go slowly but inexorably down.

So age has become particularly salient this year. No matter who is elected, the question must be asked what happens next should the President not live out his term? Nearly 20% have not survived their terms. Traditionally, the vice presidency — not worth a pitcher of warm spit in VP John Garner’s estimation — might loom a bit larger this time around.

— Charles Milliken is a professor emeritus after 22 years of teaching economics and related subjects at Siena Heights University. He can be reached at milliken.charles@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Charles C. Milliken: Concerning old age