WORK HARD TO LIVE LONG: SECRET OF HAPPY OLD AGE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20328, 11 June 1934, Page 6

WORK HARD TO LIVE LONG: SECRET OF HAPPY OLD AGE.

To-day’s Special Article

Call on only a Ninth of Our Capacity:/ Factors of Mind, Body and Emotions.

Certain people of prominence have been discussing the conditions making for a happy old age. The subject is, of course, one of vital interest to us all. for great length of daysaccompanied by the maximum of happiness and good health—-the two are inseparable—is a boon desired by the majority. We grumble at life, but few of us can have enough of it. To prolong life has ever been man’s dream, writes Sir Herbert Barker, the famous manipulative surgeon. 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 comoletelu at variance with science.

QRTIIODOXY tells us that we are entitled to three score years and ten. Modern instances suggest that we may hope for a much longer span—but onlv if we live according to those unwritten laws of nature, to tmderstand which is to take the first step towards length of days, says Sir Herbert in the “ Daily Mail.’’ Reason might suggest that to live long it is necessary to conserve the body’s energies. Scientific facts reveal the somewhat surprising information that we call on only one-ninth ..of our body's functional capacities and therefore possess huge reserves. Generally speaking, then, we never know our full physical capabilities, or, in t he terms of the biologists, our ” potential.” And this is true of our minds: we work them only to something like a ninth, also, of their capacities. Untapped Reserves. Enormous reserves, therefore, are always kept Uncalled upon But this does not mean that we possess a grand, wide margin with which we can play. All things being equal, to attain to a ripe old age it is essential that the organisrrV should function to capacity. Those live longest who live most intensely, or, to use again the biological term, who function to the limit of their potential. Good health means maximum function, and that both on the physical and 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 over work. One used often to hear of “ 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, so great are its reserves. Direct evidence of such facts as the foregoing is obtainable to-day, thanks to the perfectioir of the technique of laboratory methods of research. We may take it, then, as proved, that we run little danger c£ shortening our lives by the vigorous pursuit of physical and mental activities. Work, whether it is work for joy or work for gain, or work imposed simply by economic necessity, involves us in function, and function takes us towards health and life. The more fully the organism functions the healthier it is It should be our object, therefore, to got out of ourselves the “ potential ” that is the greatest contribution of which we a»*e capable in the particular environment retting in which we find ourselves. Now the reader will probably be criticising this proposition of mine already. He will very likely protest that work may be so distasteful as to make its performance a hardship. With that I heartily agree. Art of Living Fully. 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 i*?ir 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 ol all arts. It is the tragedy of every unhappy life to Took back to see too late that failure followed on inability to master the extraordinary difficult technique of living. But life never gives us a second chance.

It is for that reason that we should strive to learn rapidly, so that we can apply our new knowledge while there remain years of vigour and activity ahead of us. There are several ways of doing that. One is to ponder the causes of failure; another to examine for their secret the lives of those who have attained both to success and length of days. Fruits cf Experience. Psychologists tell us that after a certain age our minds develop no further, that v/e reach the limitj/ of our intellectual growth. They add, however, that beyond that point we improve in our technique of life by applying the fruits cf experience. It is from experience, then, that we must learn. A repeated error is a confession cf stupidity or at least of thoughtlessness. But the iron law applies, and for every repeated error we must once more suffer. There is only one criterion for everv action and every mental process by whioh 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. The mental attitude towards what we do goes a long way towards determining its effect upon us. The world is full of square in round holes. But, whatever one may do, the fact is that much of the world's work must be performed for no better purpose than to procure the means of life. In such oases 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 hav2 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 ar»d women who live long lives usually have lived very full ones. Late Love and Work. Goethe, at eighty, was still producing literary masterpieces and occupying his emotional side with a deep attachment. Seme people do not approve the 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 eighty y p ars 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 tfat State while moving towards his ninetieth year. Nor does he retire to an armchair; the duties of his office done, he goes riding. Examination of the old in one’s own circle will, I think, reveal this same capacity to enjoy life and to continue at work. And for the same reasonthe lifeinstinct is so powerful that it thrusts back the approach of decay and decrepitude. The old adagP that appetite comes with eating is never truer than of life itself. The wider our interests, the keener our minds, the deeper our sympathies, the greater oar love, the better our chances of long life To be able to look back across the •mg years and sav : ”1 have lived,” is to ha\ e fulfilled oneself.