When is an Old Soldier Really Old?

Young People, whatever their age, take needless, thrilling risks

A 58-year-old retired sergeant major I served with in the 70th Armor said yesterday, in a discussion we were having about Life, that he is not old. I made a joke about it saying he is, in fact, old. He persisted in denying it.

For me, the first measure of being old is in the effect of training on my bicycle racing. Training in my mid-60s does not make me better, it helps me to get worse at a slower rate. I will never be faster climbing a two-mile hill than I was when I was forty. If I train hard, I get slower at a slower rate. That is the effect of old age on my body. It is inevitable and predictable and responds well to exercise.

The soul is just as predictable. When people get old in their souls, their hope is in restoring the past, not striving to the future. Ironically, though they are nearer death and have less to lose than a 20-year-old in terms of life lived, the old soul stops taking risks.

Courage is the bright aura around the best young lives. Courage in old age has to be practiced and cultivated. The tendency is to self protection. For me, racing and training to race help to slow the aging of my soul also. Riding in traffic, riding fast in groups, riding as fast as I can down a hill keeps me looking forward to the next race, the next season, and exercises my courage along with my body. Young souls can risk all for a reward, but also take risks just for the delight of feeling alive in the moment.

Countries and cultures are the same. A growing, thriving culture looks forward. A dying culture looks primarily to past glories. China and Israel, arguably the oldest countries in the world, are also the most vital. Of the 44 countries I have visited or lived in, they are the most alive. In Jerusalem, in Shanghai, in Beijing, young people are moving in.

Poland, Serbia, Hungary and Ukraine to name a few are dying. When I visited these countries the young people I talked to were looking for a way out. Those cultures are turning backward and turning inward, as we do when we die.

Am I getting old? Are you getting old? When was the last time you did something that risked you life, risked your fortune, or simply took a risk for no reason except the thrill of taking that risk?

I will leave it to my old friend to decide if he is an old soul. To call 58-year-old body with a 75-year average lifespan middle aged or not old is truly "Fake News."

America is, I believe, currently old country. As Israel and China show, a country can turn around after centuries or millennia, but right now the people in power look backward.

Money can help people and countries fight the appearance of aging, but not the fact. Nostalgia is the cosmetic surgery of rich countries. Rich, dying, countries can wrap themselves in past glories for a while. But eventually, the best young people will want to go somewhere else. And when they do, the nostalgia turns self-protective and ugly. It is happening fast and ugly in Eastern Europe. It can happen here too.