CHARM OF OLD WOMEN

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12538, 30 August 1926, Page 5

CHARM OF OLD WOMEN

Walt Whitman declares that the old are more beautiful than the young, which must be % very consoling thought to many, writes Lady Norah Bentinck. He likens old age to an estuary that widens before it flows into the ocean, and so we realise that when he speaks of beauty lie means largely beauty of mind. It is foolish of women to regret growing old. The autumn years of ; woman’s life may be her happiest. Financial troubles, if they ever existed, will most likely be less; children are usually settled in life, and grandchildren are an amusement and an interest without being a responsibility. Old age has joys which youth never dreams of, and whatever may be said in praise of the ardent emotions of youth—and often of middle age—it cannot be denied that they are fraught with stress and torment. We cannot warm our hands at the fire of life all the time, and it is a mercy we cannot. Peace follows yearning, and in our declining years our ambitions and hopes and longings grow' far less insistent. We have entered the haven. We cease to dread old age when we have reached it. The eager, silent, waiting for adventure has passed ; our boat is safely tied to its moorings. . This all sounds very boring, perhaps. But the boredom associated byyouth with old age is not an inexorable penalty by any means, and many women of 70 are far less bored than they were at 20. It is a great mistake to be bored and a great confession of mental deficiency. No really clever people are bored. Much, of course, depends upon health, hut much more upon the mind. Naturally, if the principal concerns of a person’s life have he- n eating, sleeping and dressing, old age will not yield a fruitful crop, but will be bereft of its greatest consolations. By far the best way to conserve interest in old age is to prepare for it in youth by cultivating a vigorous, interested and impressionable mind. What hope for any one in old age whose brains have become petrified at 40? We all reach out for love; we all Jong to he loved in some way or other; and, indeed, in as many ways as possible. A miserable, discontented old woman is seldom loved; jet on the other hand, there are few better counsellors in the many tangles of lite than a thoughtful, intelligent, warmhearted old woman who has lived and loved.