THE BEST TIME OF LIFE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 13, 16 January 1926, Page 16

THE BEST TIME OF LIFE

BETWEEN FOETY AND FIFTY.

In the new and better world which j politicians are never tired of promis-; ing us, I hope there'will '.be a univer- • sity for elderly men and women. Ij am sure the waiting list will be cnor- j •mous. There are thousands of middle-1 aged people who would simply love 'to ■ study, only they arc far too old to | 'offer" .themselves as pupils,. writes ! Richard J&ng in "New Silent; Friends." ' ' i ; So they .content themselves some-; times tty sending youth to be taught i the : tbings -they would like to know, j anfl -youth is simply- bored ■thcire.by; un-to tears. It isithcSame with -travel, j with reading, with beauty, w.ith .com- J panionship, love, friendship, .even pas-1 sion. Jf we could live through again >■ ,the life which we have already lived, mo.st of us would be thrilled, where 'previously we had .been merely exas-j ■perated; excited, where previously we ; had boon only mildly enthusiastic; interested and absorbed, where twenty years ago we only remember how ■un.tttterftbly dull it all was. So I'think that the "best time of a man or woman's life is between forty and fifty, providing only that circumstances allow them to, live the life they want to live. Otherwise it's the mxost unfortunate. And also provided that they hav.e kept alive something jrt the keenness and enthusiasm ol their youth, while adding to it that deeper interest in "little things" which can unske .of this world such a wonderland of entertainment and ro-

jnancc. for -study is the joy of middle age, ;p.o't a youthful joy. The whole spirit of -youlh- is bored by being forced, to ,lc?trn when the whole mind and body is crying..out for play; just as the whole spirit of middle ago cries out for study, and is only 'bored beyond measure at J:ieing. forced to amuse itsc lf —"amusement" so often a misnomer.