Admittedly old men are often a good deal more cantankerous than when they were younger, and we recall that often at the old MOMA afternoon film showings two of them would suddenly battle it out over some imagined slight. The theater would be dark and the movie rolling and from the seats near the screen would come a loud “You are sitting in my wife’s seat!” or some such. Once there was a fearful racket in the Men’s Room as two such bull elephants went at each other verbally. Perhaps this only happens in Manhattan. But isn’t is true that in this advanced civilization we should keep as genial as ever as we enter senior years, rather than give in to whatever hormone or lack of it is creating the problem?

Of course, as civilization advances we will all grow infinitely patient and sweet natured, but judging from New York City this will take a few more years, though on the whole it is remarkable these days how good humored even old men seem to be.
Perhaps they have added something to the water.

Possibly Ted Turner and a few others who have some native talent at keeping their energy past sixty – my lunch club, the renowned Dutch Treat Club for editors, writers, publishers, actors and others in the arts boasts a large number of these exceptional people, it is really quite impressive to see how well some people wear internally even as they fall apart externally – but the fact is Barbara was unable to conceal the decay of the skin and other parts of the body which attacks old people regardless, even if they keep up a judicious diet. The natural inclination we have to keep ourselves and everyone else we love alive even if they are falling apart or radically wounded or crippled in combat is something that seems unlikely to last for ever, given the gigantic costs that will attend the top heavy pyramid that is coming soon.

So we are sympathetic to the government’s attitude, whether it is explicit or not, to extend euthanasia under the cloak of legal drink and tobacco. What would you suggest, otherwise? There is something quite mad about keeping people alive in a state of coma or total mental collapse due to age, which so often results in bankrupting their family, or taking all their inheritance, or using up the life of their sons or daughters who look after them, for no great benefit to the patients themselves, who often dont have any idea where they are.

By the way abject poverty is not a very pleasant state but what about poverty? You could imagine that old people need very little other than good food, shelter, somewhere sunny to walk and some pursuit like chess or gardening to keep them very happy. One imagines that many people could become a lot more philosophical and content without great expenditures in their old age. It is illness that threatens to break the public bank.

With a rich mental life fed by cable tv and a chess set an older rational man who didn’t fall ill could get by quite contentedly, surely, as long as he had some kind of social life and community when he needed it. The centenarians seemed very happy in Barbara’s documentary without yachts and airplanes, as far as one could see.

One imagines in the future that as responsible citizens we will all keep suicide pills handy and take them before becoming a burden to others, and observe a duty to stay cheerful until that time.