Mark Twain is credited with the line, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”
No one can say for sure if he actually said it, but it is still a useful aphorism that can stimulate thinking.
The quote stimulated me to ponder the current media commotion about 81-year-old President Joseph Biden, and the concerns as to whether he will be up to the task of leading the United States for another four years if he wins the election. The ages of both of the likely candidates (Donald Trump is 77) have been a topic of conversation since even before this presidential season started.
One thought that leapt into my brain when this current age issue appeared was, “Wait. Haven’t we had this discussion before?” I can remember a few 1980s pundits and journalists implying that Ronald Reagan was a clueless old man, especially toward the end of his second term. In the 1990s, I saw a political button reading “Bob Dole in ’96” with the word “is” spray painted over the word “in” to contrast him to the relatively youthful Bill Clinton. I guess when it comes to politics, agreement with the adage “with age comes wisdom” really seems to come down to what color of the political hat you wear.
As I was thinking about this, I came across the writer Madeleine Kerns who observed how many of the world’s leaders are advanced in age. Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu is 74; Irans’s Ali Khamenei is 84; Russia’s Vladimir Putin is 71; China’s Xi Jinping is 70. All of them appear ready to stay in their leadership roles. It must be hard to willingly give up so much power.
This reading led me to Shakespeare and the speech from “As You Like It” often known as “The Seven Ages of Man.” This soliloquy begins with the line, “All the World’s a Stage” and goes on to compare the stages in human life — well, a man’s life — to different actors playing a part on stage.
The first is an “infant,” then “schoolboy,” then “lover,” followed by “soldier.” After that, the man becomes a “justice” which might correspond to middle age. This is the time of careers and family. It is perhaps the beginning of a kind of wisdom. Of course, in medieval times life expectancy was probably somewhere between 35 and 50, so we can adjust those ages accordingly.
After that, we find ourselves playing the part of “old age” which today probably would be the age 70 and up. Today “old age” finds many who are still vibrant and active, socially involved with the world and — hopefully — still growing in wisdom. The last scene is, as The Bard puts it, “Second childishness.” This is when the actor in the play loses the ability to take care of himself.
The thing to determine is what scene we are in. Another question is: how will we know? It is common to hear of adult children having tough battles with their elderly parents when they try to take their car keys away. We don’t want to relinquish the keys because we are aware we are really giving up our free agency; we are sentenced to become infants once more. Who will tell us it is time to get off the stage?
I am pretty sure I am not ready to give up my car keys. Still — I think, I hope — I will be rational enough to listen when someone I trust says, “it’s time.” I am also very close in age to both Trump and Biden. I very much hope at some point they will know what to do when someone says, “it’s time.”
Norman Knight, a retired Clark-Pleasant Middle School teacher, writes this weekly column for the Daily Journal. Send comments to [email protected].
