HE-47
Home Economics Extension
Dorothy V. Mummery Family Life Specialist
Your Best Foot Forward
in
The Middle and Older Years
As young as our faith,
As old as our doubt,
As young as our self confidence,
As old as our fear,
As young as our hope,
As old as our despair.
This statement has been credited to General MacArthur. Probably to many, he is an example of one who knows the art of growing older. For there is an art of growing older, but it is an art that can be learned.
We Are Not Getting Younger
None of us is getting any younger. For every person, the years are slowly but surely adding up. So why not plan for a rich and full life in the years ahead? Each of us can learn the art of getting older, if we will to do so. There are those who know the secret who will be glad to let us in on it. But only we can determine to so live that will grow old graciously, and be a continual inspiration and source of courage to those who know us.
If we asked a group of teen-agers what they were going to be in fifteen or twenty years they would all be full of plans and eager to tell them. But many adults, asked the same question, might be quite startled to find that they really have no plans for the later years of their lives.	
The statement "What you are to be, you are now becoming" is just as true for adults as for children. (1) Just as the day to day experiences of little children influence what he will be like in his teens, so what kind of an older person we will be, depends upon what we are doing and thinking now.
"Just as adolescence is the product of whatever experiences have made up childhood, so the interests, attitudes, and satisfactions of later life depend on those of early maturity. A well-balanced person looks back upon his life and profits from the lessons he has learned and enjoys pleasant memories. But he also looks into the future and makes plans for what he intends to do tomorrow." (1)
People Live Longer
Statistics show that people live longer than in the years gone by. Less than fifty years ago the average person in the United States lived to celebrate his forty-fifth birthday. Today the life expectancy of men is slightly under 65, and that of women slightly over 67.
In 1900, of 4 babies born, only 3 reached 25 years of age, or 75%. Today, of 4 babies born 3 will reach 57.
If medical science continues to prolong lives, we shall have more old people than young people in the not too distant future.
The life span of each person depends on his heredity, and his observance of all health practices including good medical and physical care. It probably depends also on his psychology, —his attitude toward life and life’s expereinces. Surely how well he lives depends on the latter.