Rotary
Meeting of September 23, 2014 - Reported by Tom Croft
Last
week of Youth Services Month
William
Shatner led us in the reciting of "Oh Canada" and it was a pleasure
to see him on the screen. Sandy Curry
recited Grace and Sam and Julia granted themselves first position in food
line-up!
After
lunch, Julia informed us that she had been told by Jim that the lunch would be
Mexican; Sam assured Julia,” that this is NATCHO your club”.
Visiting
Rotarians; Samantha Lloyd and Julia Philips Rotaractors and MC's today; Lisa
Collins, President Victoria Harbourside - Law/Wealth Planning; Peter Davey,
Past President Glastonbury & Street Club, UK - Marketing
Visitor: Kathleen Arnason, guest of Jim Force.
Health
of the Club Mary Canty: Batya and David ARE still in Israel with their son who
is not well; Mary read a letter from them.
David Philips is having some more treatments.
 |
| Sabrina and Janna with the banner from the Rotary Club close to Tricia's Primary School alma mater, Mitchelton, Brisbane, Queensland. |
There is a District
proposal to have only an annual motto "Service Above Self" with no
Presidents' annual theme. A discussion of
the motion ensued; of the members present, 21 voted in favour of the motion and
4 against. The results will be sent to
the District.
Celebrations
Master; Perry Bamji, began by promoting the optional black tie Paul Harris
Award Dinner. People talking during his
promotional moment were fined; he fined the Rotaractor for her bad
joke. Tom and Jill Croft's 42nd anniversary; Ron Beyer and his wife are celebrating their
30th anniversary.
Happy
bucks: Tav immigrated 50 years ago today; Mary had life cycles pick 160 lbs from
her grape arbour; Jim and Lynne regarding the Roosevelt series on PBS and the Polio connection;
Jessica - party on Sunday; Jana missing apples - apparently life cycles got them.
 |
| Eugen |
Cicero
Quotes on Aging
Introduction
The
reason I am giving this talk today dates back to last January.
Past-President
Peter Lawrie introduced Rotary Awareness Month with a pep talk on increasing
member participation in club activities.
The
Board, he said, had set a goal of 100% engagement from the membership;
and
then he floated this slogan adapted from the John Kennedy era:
Don’t
forget to ask yourself, what you can do for Rotary.
So
I asked myself. What else, besides Roster duties, could I possibly do that
would be of interest to club members?
I
looked around this room. I noted many of us were seniors.
Why
not share with them my excitement about Cicero’s Essay on Aging.
There
are many active members who are decades younger, but I had found Cicero’s
insights very energizing and gloom-dispelling; maybe the old philosopher has
some good tips for the modern day for all of us.
So
I let Bob Schelle know, if he ever needs a speaker, I’d be happy to step in.
So
here we are today.
I’ve
called my talk, “Quotes from Cicero on Old Age.”
Some
background on Cicero
Marcus
Tullius Cicero lived in Rome during the first century, BC, from 106 B.C. to 43
B.C.
He
was an highly acclaimed philosopher, politician, lawyer, and orator, who
published more than 100 of his writings, speeches, letters and books.
His
essay “On Old Age,” was written the year before his death at 63 years of age.
The
essay has received universal recognition for its clarity, humaneness, and its
vitality for the inevitability of aging.
This
positivism led the French philosopher, Montaigne, to quip, “He gives one an
appetite for growing old.”
In
today’s talk, I will read two-score of my favourite quotes from the essay, in
roughly the order they appear in the text.
Cicero
needs no commentary; he speaks for himself.
(1) What
I shall try to compose for you--as well as for myself--is a consolation for
this prospect of old age.
I
have so greatly enjoyed its composition that the task has rid me of any thought
of the irritations which age shall bring, and has even made the condition seem
agreeable and attractive.
(2) I
regard nature as the best guide: I follow and obey her as a divine being.
Now
since she has planned all the earlier divisions of our lives excellently, she
is not likely to make a bad playwright’s mistake of skimping the last act.
And
a last act was inevitable. There had to be a time of withering, of readiness to
fall, like the ripeness which comes to the fruits of the trees and of the
earth.
Life’s
course is invariable—nature has one path only, and you cannot travel along it
more than once.
Every
age has its own characteristics: boys are feeble, youths in their prime are
aggressive, middle-aged men are dignified, old people are mature.
All
things in keeping with nature must be classified as good; and nothing is so
completely in keeping with nature than that the old should die.
In
the same way as apples, while green, can only be picked by force, but after
ripening to maturity fall off by themselves, so death comes to the young with
violence but to old people when the time is ripe.
And
the thought of this ripeness so greatly attracts me that as I approach death, I
feel like a man nearing harbour after a long voyage: I seem to be catching
sight of land.
(3) But
surely there are occupations fitted for old men’s minds and brains even when
their bodies are infirm.
Some
people never stop learning, however old they are.
That
is what I have been doing, too!
In
my later years I have learnt to read Greek. I have fastened upon this study with
the greed of a man trying to satisfy a long-endured thirst.
So
old age, you see, far from being sluggish and feeble, is really very lively, and
perpetually active, and still busy with the pursuits of earlier years.
What nobler employment, or more
valuable to the state, than that of a man
who instructs the rising generation.
(4) We
ought to feel very grateful to old age for removing the desire for sensual pleasures.
For
sensual feelings cloud a man’s judgment, obstruct his reasoning capacity, and
blind his intelligence: let sensuality be present, and a good life becomes
impossible.
(5) Now
I come to the pleasures of farming. These give me an unbelievable amount of
enjoyment.
Old
age does not impede them in the least, and in my view they come closest of all
things to a life of true wisdom.
Cornfields,
meadows, vineyards, woods, all give added pleasure to the cultivator’s life.
And
so do orchards, cattle-pastures, bees in their swarms, and flowers in their
infinite variety.
Planting,
too, is a delight, and so is agriculture’s most ingenious operation, grafting.
Personally
I incline to the opinion that no life could be happier than the farmer’s.
To
begin with, the services which he performs by his cultivation of the soil are
beneficial to the entire human race.
If
you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.
(6) For our human souls have come into
our bodies from heaven: they have been sent down from their lofty abode and plunged,
so to speak, into the earth, which is alien to their divine and eternal nature.
But
what nature gives us is a place to dwell in temporarily, not one to make our
own.
When
I leave life, therefore, I shall feel as if I am leaving a hostel rather than
a
home.
What
a great day it will be when I set out to join that divine assemblage and concourse
of souls, and depart from the confusion and corruption of this world!
I
shall be going to meet not only all those of whom I have spoken, but also my
own son. He should have cremated my body; but I had to cremate his.
There are two alternatives:
either death completely destroys human souls, in which case it is negligible;
or it removes the soul to some place of eternal life--in which case it is
greatly to be desired.
Even
if I am mistaken in my belief that the soul is immortal, I make the mistake gladly, for the belief makes
me happy, and is one which as long as I live I want to retain.
(7) When
life’s last act, old age, has become wearisome,
when
we have had enough, the time has come to go.
That
is what I think about old age.
Old
age: the crown of life, our play’s last act.
I conclude with a quote on
Old Age from a Guatemalan who had observed one of our members, Mary Canty,
(92), climb a mountain in Lake Atitlan, Guatemala.
Mary
herself told us the story from this podium last month.
"Mary Canty,” he said to her. “I have
watched you. You have changed my life. After meeting you I will never be afraid to
grow old."
Bravo, Mary!
Bravo to everyone!
May you live to see the condition!
Eugen was thanked by Don O'Coffey
Additional quotes from Cicero:
The foolishness of old age does not characterize
the old, only the foolish.
No one is so old as to think they cannot live
another year.
Where there’s life, there is hope.
I have never heard of an old man forgetting where
he has buried his money.
Old people remember what interests them.
I
am so fond of conversation that I even enjoy afternoon parties.
Brevity is the best recommendation of speech,
whether in a senator or an orator -- or a Rotarian!
Our
MC’s closed with a tribute to the Queen by the Kinks, called
"Gloria". What a great meeting
and Youth Services Month.
