I Am Banishing ‘I’m Too Old’ and ‘It’s Too Late’ From My Vocabulary
These are the saddest words in the English language
I spent time with a friend recently who is 84. She is vibrant, brilliant, active, and wickedly funny. She has traveled all over the world. She is a renowned ceramics artist, a professor, and an activist. She lives in a gorgeous Craftsman-style home, still drives her own car, has a gentleman friend, and two grandchildren she adores. She was getting ready to fly to Chicago to see her grandkids and then off to Paris for a week. She lives an enviable life.
Even so, there were several times in our conversations that she used the phrases “I’m too old” or “It’s too late.” She said she had wanted to move to Princeton, but now she is “too old to move.” She said she had wanted to blow out a wall in her basement pottery studio but now “it’s too late.” When she said these things she became wistful, looking off into the distance, as if at the opportunities that had passed her by.
It broke my heart. She has lived this big, beautiful life, and yet there are things she wishes she had done differently. Now she blames it on being too old. Now she says it’s too late.
I am not arguing that there aren’t things we will regret at the end of our lives. Of course we will. We will all look at…
