Rakesh Ahuja
I have been rereading Bertrand Russell\’s autobiography. It is a model of brevity, which encapsulates his extraordinary life in one volume. I have long tried to use it as a template for my own writing about myself, but singularly failed to do so.
Anyway, in the pages, I found a handwritten note, by me, which I had copied from somewhere else. It describes what he had said about old age. I am astonished by the coincidence of reading this note, now that I am 80. It is titled ‘Bertrand Russell on Growing Old’.
“Psychologically, there are two dangers to be guarded against in old age. One of these is undue absorption in the past. It does not do to live in memories, in regrets for the good old days, or in sadness about friends who are dead. One’s thoughts must be directed to the future, and to things about which there is something to be done. This is not always easy; one’s own past is a gradually increasing weight. It is easy to think to oneself that one’s emotions used to be more vivid than they are, and one’s mind keener. If this is true, it should be forgotten, and if it is forgotten, it will probably not be true.
The other thing to be avoided is clinging to youth in the hope of sucking vigour from its vitality. When your children are grown up, they want to live their own lives, and if you continue to be as interested in them as you were when they were young, you are likely to become a burden to them, unless they are unusually callous. I do not mean that one should be without interest in them, but one’s interest should be contemplative and, if possible, philanthropic, but not unduly emotional. Animals become indifferent to their young as soon as their young can look after themselves, but human beings, owing to the length of infancy, find this difficult.”
