“…By Every Service Which Thou Renderest”

When you arrive in your 70’s and have a few dollars put away, what are you supposed to do with the rest of your life?  The obvious answer is dedicate yourself to the welfare of others — your immediate family certainly, but also your community, your state, your country, and humanity at large.  Use what resources you have left to benefit others, not just yourself.  The old adage is, “You can’t take it with you,” so why not use your assets and the time you have left for the benefit of your fellow man?

In her A Drama of Exile, Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote, “Thou shalt be served thyself by every sense of service which thou renderest.”  One is reminded of the transformation that takes place in the character and personality of Scrooge in Charles Dickins’s A Christmas Carol when Scrooge begins to live for the sake and benefit of others.

And yet how few in old age every make such a commitment to dedicate the rest of their lives for the benefit of others.

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So the Stoics Say

Life is full of pain and woe,
So the Stoics say,
But the trick is easy to see —
Don’t let it get to thee.

You decide what’s fair or foul.
It’s a judgment that you make.
It’s not the world that’s out of whack.
It’s your judgment, it’s very slack.

Select your judgments carefully
And you will no doubt be
A person who disarms harm —
Turns it to a funny yarn.

All Poetry — Henry Barnard

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