Richard asked:

My question is not a new one by any means. I just turned 56 and I am very aware of the fact even
with good health and a brain and bladder that continue to function the most I can hope for is another
good fifteen to twenty years of life. Can you recommend readings or books that would be a general
guide on how to best use these last few years in the most beneficial way? I realize that the final
answer to this question is one that no one can answer for me. I would find it very helpful to have
some guidance on what or who to read on this subject.

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I think the answer depends quite a bit on your present beliefs and commitments. You might find
anything I recommend so at odds with these that you would not get anything out of it. Having said
that, I would recommend reading Peter Singer. It's not that I agree with him — I think that his
philosophical basis in utilitarianism is quite flawed, and I don't even go along with all his conclusions.
Nevertheless, he has some extremely interesting things to say, and he is sure to get you thinking.

Tim Sprod

It's good to have intimations of our mortality, don't you think? I, as a 56-year old, see that as just
another aspect of learning about ourselves. I'm not going to answer your question as you seem to
wish. First, these days, you can look forward, with reasonable genetics, to more than 15-20 years...
more like 30. Now, the issue is not your new and clear realization that you're going to die; that was
always true, wasn't it, and whether you have 20 or 50 years to live, it's all too short, right? If you think
about what you did in your first 30 years, where life has no clear horizon, you find them filled mostly
with trivia and learning, don't you. So now you have the opportunity to spend the next 20-30 applying
what you have learned, rather than wasting time learning the basics: how to find sex, have a
relationship, play checkers, put on your shoes, etc., etc., etc. (notice I'm not saying that havingsex,
relationships, checkers, etc., are wastes... just that learningthem takes lots of time and that time is
now available for something else). I think about the total amount of time I spent playing table tennis...
(sigh). But it was fun.

Ok, so you want reading? Well, one way to go would be to read homilies about ageing... "grow old
along with me, the best is yet to be..." right. There's lots of those, and I think they're garbage.
New-age bookstores are filled with that stuff, as I'm sure you know. My recommendation, for what it's
worth, is to look at examples.Read, if you must, biographiesof people you admire, and find out how
they aged... or how they shouldhave aged. Look around you at older people living the kind of life you
want to live at their age, see what they're doing, how, why. Look at older people who aren'tdoing that.
Then bethe example. Configure your life, now that you've learned the basics, into what you think your
life should be. Just do it.

Steven Ravett Brown