{"id":114366,"date":"2018-07-16T12:00:52","date_gmt":"2018-07-16T11:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=114366"},"modified":"2018-07-10T12:19:59","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T11:19:59","slug":"how-to-grow-old-bertrand-russell-on-what-makes-a-fulfilling-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/07\/how-to-grow-old-bertrand-russell-on-what-makes-a-fulfilling-life\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Grow Old: Bertrand Russell on What Makes a Fulfilling Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMake your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cIf you can fall in love again and again,\u201d<\/em> Henry Miller wrote as he contemplated the measure of a life well lived <\/a>on the precipice of turning eighty, \u201cif you can forgive as well as forget, if you can keep from growing sour, surly, bitter and cynical\u2026 you\u2019ve got it half licked.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Seven years earlier, the great British philosopher, mathematician, historian, and Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell<\/strong> (May 18, 1872\u2013February 2, 1970) considered the same abiding question at the same life-stage in a wonderful short essay titled \u201cHow to Grow Old,\u201d<\/strong> penned in his eighty-first year and later published in Portraits from Memory and Other Essays<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (public library<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\n

Russell places at the heart of a fulfilling life the dissolution of the personal ego into something larger. Drawing on the longstanding allure of rivers as existential metaphors<\/a>, he writes:<\/p>\n

Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river \u2014 small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Bertrand Russell<\/p><\/div>\n

In a sentiment which philosopher and comedian Emily Levine would echo in her stirring reflection on facing her own death with equanimity<\/a>, Russell builds on the legacy of Darwin and Freud, who jointly established death as an organizing principle of modern life<\/a>, and concludes:<\/p>\n

The man who, in old age, can see his life in this way, will not suffer from the fear of death, since the things he cares for will continue. And if, with the decay of vitality, weariness increases, the thought of rest will not be unwelcome. I should wish to die while still at work, knowing that others will carry on what I can no longer do and content in the thought that what was possible has been done.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Portraits from Memory and Other Essays<\/em><\/strong><\/a> is an uncommonly potent packet of wisdom in its totality. Complement this particular fragment with Nobel laureate Andr\u00e9 Gide on how happiness increases with age<\/a>, Ursula K. Le Guin on aging and what beauty really means<\/a>, and Grace Paley on the art of growing older<\/a> \u2014 the loveliest thing I\u2019ve ever read on the subject \u2014 then revisit Russell on critical thinking<\/a>, power-knowledge vs. love-knowledge<\/a>, what \u201cthe good life\u201d really means<\/a>, why \u201cfruitful monotony\u201d is essential for happiness<\/a>, and his remarkable response to a fascist\u2019s provocation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Brain Pickings<\/em> is the brain child of Maria Popova, an interestingness hunter-gatherer and curious mind at large obsessed with combinatorial creativity who also writes for <\/em>Wired<\/em> UK and <\/em>The Atlantic<\/em>, among others, and is an MIT Futures of Entertainment Fellow. She has gotten occasional help from a handful of guest contributors<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 brainpickings.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cMake your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":114369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspirational"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}