Taking inspiration from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 90-year-old Paul Zolbrod argues it's not too late for him to keep publishing—nor for a certain octogenarian president to run for another term.
I loved Paul's piece and like another reader, the Johnny Cash comparison struck me. So many influences across the arts that one notices more and more when one ages, too. As an education editor, I've long revered Louise Rosenblatt's transactional theory of reading, that "the act of reading literature involves a transaction (Dewey's term) between the reader and the text. She argued that the meaning of any text lay not in the work itself but in the reader's transaction with it, whether it was a play by Shakespeare or a novel by Toni Morrison. " (Wikipedia). Paul's revisiting of poets and poems brings this theory to life. It also reminded me of my recent joy in learning that many young female singer/song writers are discovering Joni Mitchell, and that she is a big influence on their work. The more older artists keep doing their thing, the greater chance for younger generations to notice, and to invite their creative brilliance in, nurture it, and transform it.
Wow! I sent to Zolbrod’s academic home, Allegheny College, and while I never took one of his classes, he was very present to all of us who attended this small liberal arts college. What’s more, he’s been a remarkable mainstay at every reunion I’ve attended over the past nearly 50 years now. Passing this on to my college pals. Still sharp as a tack, he is.
Note bene: While I didn’t take any of his classes, I was a one-third English major under the auspices of my independent studies “American Studies in Journalism.” So even by taking the many English classes I did, I was well, well aware of Paul’s work on indigenous story-telling. By the by, I’m on the cusp of 70, and writing the Substack blog, “Aging Graciously.” After a long career as a reporter, magazine correspondent, freelancer, web editor, editor-in-chief, and Internet media executive, the writing I’m doing, I feel, is as good or better than ever. Which is in and of itself, another lesson for the wisdom of age.
Dr. Zolbrod, sent your post to a bunch of my Delt brothers that meet every Friday on Zoom. Plus I posted it to our Class of ‘75 Facebook group. So glad to see your still at it!!!! So proud. The older I get the more I relish the education all of you gave me at AC. Thank you!
A president, unlike a writer, holds the country in one pair of hands. So on the matter of a second term for Biden, I’m still not convinced. But I’m persuaded that Longfellow, whose singsong verse I loathed as a child, deserves a second look. The comparison to Johnny Cash is powerful. Thank you for this vigorous defense of very late life as a fountain of creativity.
Between my father's terminal cancer diagnosis at 80 and his death two years later he wrote his 43rd and final book. He too was an English professor with a cross-cultural, multidisciplinary perspective. At 80 he'd had at least 4 books planned or underway so it was only being told he had 6 months that made him choose one to be the last.
He finished the second 1000 page draft as his body comprehensively shut down last June. He still had so much to say at almost 82, was still intellectually curious, articulate and original. He couldn't have written that particular book without drawing from 65 years of wide ranging thinking, writing and reading in many languages.
The gulf stream of his youth continued to feed the high arctic of his old age until the final week.
Several years ago, when I was in my early 70s and about to retire, I was walking on one of my usual paths to be the beach when I saw a pile of small stones arranged around a tree. They had been painted by a couple of eleven year-old girls. They inscribed different inspirational sayings on each rock, and left them for the taking. The one that jumped out at me said simply: “You are not too old. It is never too late.” I picked it up. I have it here right next to my computer. It makes me smile every time I turn on this magic box.
Of course, what you are not too old for is the big questions, and the answer is entirely up to you. But it helps a lot to have an answer, whether it is to write a new poem, keep you room clean, call an old friend, or continue to fight fro keep the country free from liars and scoundrels. Keep at it. But also, keep going to the beach.
Aug 1, 2023·edited Aug 1, 2023Liked by Sari Botton
A nice piece, on reading the opening I am instantly reminded of the final lines from Tennysons’ ‘Ulysses’ which I always think provide succour to those who need inspiration to persevere in the face of the passage of time and everything that comes with it:
‘ Come, my friends,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
Bravo! 75 here, and more inspired to create than ever! While many might want a younger president who looks and acts more like them, there’s no reason a healthy octogenarian can’t lead with wisdom and energy.
At merely 80, I feel somewhat pretentious even to commend these reflections. But thank you, thank you for them! I'd been worrying that at my age, even with three books due (novel, collection of personal essays, and sixteenth poetry collection), I might be churning out stale, self-repetitive thoughts. Well, maybe I am: I'll let others judge. All I know is that the impulse to write has rarely if ever been stronger in me! Your presentation is deeply reassuring.
I understand the misgving about stale repetiveness. But here's what I've found. My self-editing skills are sharper than ever, now tnat I've learned not to hurry as I write.
Finally. something I can read where the usual platitudes about growing older are not the "go to" thinking of the person!! I want to leave the conversation, or even the relationship , when a friend calls Biden "too old". His experience and knowledge and just plain consistency in all things is irreplaceable. Yes, he makes missteps physically and mentally... And then in the next breath starts a conversation about whether to stay with an aging boyfriend because the care taking is such a burden. I borrowed her car and turned on the radio, to hear conservative talk shows...not shocked. Is there such a thing as "American Mall" thinking? It can happen at any age, but it is this thinking things are only great if they are young, work right now in this moment and there are no areas where there can be a lapse, a pause, a rethink. If you want answers try fundamentalism. But dont complain when you can not question.
I enjoyed Paul's essay and the hope it offers all of us who've spent a lifetime writing (and aging!). I, too, was a student at Allegheny long ago, and although I wasn't his student, I remember that his name was ever present in the English department those many years ago. So happy to see him continuing to do what he loves.
While my own abilities have clearly declined in some areas over time, the one area that is a one-directional path is wisdom. I never, ever get dumber in this area.
I read the likes of Buffett and Munger before I started investing in earnest about 10 years ago, and I have been enraptured with octogenarians (and beyond) ever since. The collective wisdom of the remaining members of the Silent Generation takes me back to learning from the generation before, to interviewing my grandfather for school about he Great Depression and being born years before television was invented, when there were no radios in homes.
I mean, it isn't for EVERYbody, but I'm sure you know what I mean. With intentional, deliberate cultivation over many decades, I am quite confident that it is.
I loved Paul's piece and like another reader, the Johnny Cash comparison struck me. So many influences across the arts that one notices more and more when one ages, too. As an education editor, I've long revered Louise Rosenblatt's transactional theory of reading, that "the act of reading literature involves a transaction (Dewey's term) between the reader and the text. She argued that the meaning of any text lay not in the work itself but in the reader's transaction with it, whether it was a play by Shakespeare or a novel by Toni Morrison. " (Wikipedia). Paul's revisiting of poets and poems brings this theory to life. It also reminded me of my recent joy in learning that many young female singer/song writers are discovering Joni Mitchell, and that she is a big influence on their work. The more older artists keep doing their thing, the greater chance for younger generations to notice, and to invite their creative brilliance in, nurture it, and transform it.
Love this.
Wow! I sent to Zolbrod’s academic home, Allegheny College, and while I never took one of his classes, he was very present to all of us who attended this small liberal arts college. What’s more, he’s been a remarkable mainstay at every reunion I’ve attended over the past nearly 50 years now. Passing this on to my college pals. Still sharp as a tack, he is.
Note bene: While I didn’t take any of his classes, I was a one-third English major under the auspices of my independent studies “American Studies in Journalism.” So even by taking the many English classes I did, I was well, well aware of Paul’s work on indigenous story-telling. By the by, I’m on the cusp of 70, and writing the Substack blog, “Aging Graciously.” After a long career as a reporter, magazine correspondent, freelancer, web editor, editor-in-chief, and Internet media executive, the writing I’m doing, I feel, is as good or better than ever. Which is in and of itself, another lesson for the wisdom of age.
Fond greetings, Pat. Keep writng.
Dr. Zolbrod, sent your post to a bunch of my Delt brothers that meet every Friday on Zoom. Plus I posted it to our Class of ‘75 Facebook group. So glad to see your still at it!!!! So proud. The older I get the more I relish the education all of you gave me at AC. Thank you!
A president, unlike a writer, holds the country in one pair of hands. So on the matter of a second term for Biden, I’m still not convinced. But I’m persuaded that Longfellow, whose singsong verse I loathed as a child, deserves a second look. The comparison to Johnny Cash is powerful. Thank you for this vigorous defense of very late life as a fountain of creativity.
Well said, Rona.
And practically, one has to look at the alternatives, which in this case is a corrupt, only slightly younger candidate.
Between my father's terminal cancer diagnosis at 80 and his death two years later he wrote his 43rd and final book. He too was an English professor with a cross-cultural, multidisciplinary perspective. At 80 he'd had at least 4 books planned or underway so it was only being told he had 6 months that made him choose one to be the last.
He finished the second 1000 page draft as his body comprehensively shut down last June. He still had so much to say at almost 82, was still intellectually curious, articulate and original. He couldn't have written that particular book without drawing from 65 years of wide ranging thinking, writing and reading in many languages.
The gulf stream of his youth continued to feed the high arctic of his old age until the final week.
Several years ago, when I was in my early 70s and about to retire, I was walking on one of my usual paths to be the beach when I saw a pile of small stones arranged around a tree. They had been painted by a couple of eleven year-old girls. They inscribed different inspirational sayings on each rock, and left them for the taking. The one that jumped out at me said simply: “You are not too old. It is never too late.” I picked it up. I have it here right next to my computer. It makes me smile every time I turn on this magic box.
Of course, what you are not too old for is the big questions, and the answer is entirely up to you. But it helps a lot to have an answer, whether it is to write a new poem, keep you room clean, call an old friend, or continue to fight fro keep the country free from liars and scoundrels. Keep at it. But also, keep going to the beach.
A nice piece, on reading the opening I am instantly reminded of the final lines from Tennysons’ ‘Ulysses’ which I always think provide succour to those who need inspiration to persevere in the face of the passage of time and everything that comes with it:
‘ Come, my friends,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.’
Bravo! 75 here, and more inspired to create than ever! While many might want a younger president who looks and acts more like them, there’s no reason a healthy octogenarian can’t lead with wisdom and energy.
At merely 80, I feel somewhat pretentious even to commend these reflections. But thank you, thank you for them! I'd been worrying that at my age, even with three books due (novel, collection of personal essays, and sixteenth poetry collection), I might be churning out stale, self-repetitive thoughts. Well, maybe I am: I'll let others judge. All I know is that the impulse to write has rarely if ever been stronger in me! Your presentation is deeply reassuring.
I understand the misgving about stale repetiveness. But here's what I've found. My self-editing skills are sharper than ever, now tnat I've learned not to hurry as I write.
Finally. something I can read where the usual platitudes about growing older are not the "go to" thinking of the person!! I want to leave the conversation, or even the relationship , when a friend calls Biden "too old". His experience and knowledge and just plain consistency in all things is irreplaceable. Yes, he makes missteps physically and mentally... And then in the next breath starts a conversation about whether to stay with an aging boyfriend because the care taking is such a burden. I borrowed her car and turned on the radio, to hear conservative talk shows...not shocked. Is there such a thing as "American Mall" thinking? It can happen at any age, but it is this thinking things are only great if they are young, work right now in this moment and there are no areas where there can be a lapse, a pause, a rethink. If you want answers try fundamentalism. But dont complain when you can not question.
This piece was eye-opening for me. It softened my own aging bias against old presidential and congressional candidates. Thank you Paul!
I enjoyed Paul's essay and the hope it offers all of us who've spent a lifetime writing (and aging!). I, too, was a student at Allegheny long ago, and although I wasn't his student, I remember that his name was ever present in the English department those many years ago. So happy to see him continuing to do what he loves.
Thank you for your wisdom Paul. It came at just the right time today and calmed my 81 year old heart. ❤️😎
Paul Zolbrod is truly exceptional! I’ve had the pleasure of getting acquainted with him over the past decade.
Love!!!
While my own abilities have clearly declined in some areas over time, the one area that is a one-directional path is wisdom. I never, ever get dumber in this area.
I read the likes of Buffett and Munger before I started investing in earnest about 10 years ago, and I have been enraptured with octogenarians (and beyond) ever since. The collective wisdom of the remaining members of the Silent Generation takes me back to learning from the generation before, to interviewing my grandfather for school about he Great Depression and being born years before television was invented, when there were no radios in homes.
I love the notion that wisdom is a one-directional path.
I mean, it isn't for EVERYbody, but I'm sure you know what I mean. With intentional, deliberate cultivation over many decades, I am quite confident that it is.
Oh, wow. What timing. See this in NY Mag today: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/07/how-big-a-problem-is-president-bidens-age-really.html