A little advice from Cicero in charting the way ahead
Country Living with Francis Farragher
My little dissertation a couple of weeks back on the trials and tribulations of reaching a certain milestone in terms of advancing years, has inspired some anonymous contributor to send me a chapter from the Roman politician, writer and lawyer, Marcus Tullius Cicero.
Apparently in his day – 106 BC to 43 BC – he spoke many great words of wisdom about life and its passing, although as the saying goes he came to a bad end himself, when arch-enemy Mark Antony was involved in his assassination, before going on to bring his severed head and hands to the Roman Forum for public display.
In the guise of quoting Cato, Cicero devoted a chapter on the ins-and-outs of ‘pushing on’ but given his own premature demise – by my calculations approaching his early 50s – he didn’t have the opportunity to put his own advice into practice.
He pointed out that while everyone wanted to ‘attain an advanced age’, yet when it came to it most of them went on to complain about their senior status, warning of the folly of taking a gloomy view of the inevitable consequences of nature’s laws.
His basic principle about ‘being ready to go’ at the right time was delivered in pretty stark terms. “There had to be a time of withering, of readiness to fall, like the ripeness that comes to the fruits of the trees and of the earth. But a wise man will face this prospect with resignation, for resistance against nature is as pointless as the battles of the giants against the Gods.”
Cato aka Cicero, also observed that he had known many old men [women didn’t seem to get a mention too many times in those days] who had no complaints about their age ‘or its liberating release from physical pleasures’ and who were by no means treated with contempt by their associates. He said that if a man controlled himself and avoided bad temper and churlishness, then he can endure being old. “But if he is irritable and churlish, then any and every part of his life will seem to him tiresome.”
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.