Longevity Depends On Right Living

Taranaki Daily News, 1 June 1934, Page 14

Longevity Depends On Right Living

BODY AND MIND MUST BE GIVEN ADEQUATE WORK

YVE GRUMBLE at life, but few of us can have enough of it. To prolong life has ever been man’s dream, writes Herbert Barker in the “Daily Mail.” Elixirs, compounded by the alchemists, held out a spurious promise for our forbears of the Middle Ages. We smile when we read of these fearsome concoctions; yet we are little better in this age of science, since most of us seek to prolong life by means completely at variance with science. Good health means maximum function, and that both on the physical and the mental side. And that is but another way of saying—work. Ordinary people, it is safe to say, seldom suffer from mental strain due to overwork. One used often to hear

I Jof “brain fag,” but, according to modern physiology, there is no such thing. * One distinguished scientist recently placed on record that it is impossible to overwork the brain. The problem of getting the best out of life, of living our fullest, becomes that of getting for the three components of our make-up the best possible conditions. We have to see that our bodies have a fair deal; that our minds have the opportunity to develop; that our emotions have adequate freedom for expression. These three factors in right living constitute the art of life, the most difficult of all arts. It is the tragedy of

every unhappy life to look back to see too late that failure followed on inability to master the extraordinarily difficult technique of living. But life never gives us a second chance. It is for that reason that v. 2 should strive to learn rapidly so that we can apply our new knowledge while there remain years of vigour and activity ahead of us. Psychologists tell us that after a certain age our minds develop no further, that we reach the limits of our intellectual growth. They add, however, that beyond that point we improve in our technique of life by applying the fruits of experience. There is only one criterion for every action and every mental process by which we can gauge its value: Does it increase our interest in and enjoyment of life? Take, for example, the man who has “uninteresting” work. How, he may argue, can he be expected to enjoy it? As I see it, for him there are only two remedies; to cast about for other work that will engage his faculties the better, or to examine his approach to his present occupation. In such cases I think life may still be enriched by development of the unused abilities in the leisure hours. We should not pity the bored; we should despise them. To have so weak a hold upon life in a world such as ours that the hours hang heavily is to invite the first processes of decay that lead to premature old age. The men and women who live long lives usually have lived very full ones. Goethe, at 80, was still producing literary masterpieces and occupying his emotional side with a deep attachment. Some people do not approve the great poet’s late autumn love affair. I cannot agree with them. Goethe loved and worked until the end because he was the great lover of life. Sir Oliver Lodge is well over 80 years. of age, but he continues to work. His mind, as does his great frame, functions at full power long after the period of the accepted allotted span. President Masaryk, of Czechoslovakia, manages to conduct the affairs of that State while moving toward his 90th year. Nor does he retire to an armchair; the duties of his office done, he goes riding.