Lifeosophy is a coined word meaning knowledge of life.
The much loved TV personality and humorist, Andy Rooney, once said, “The best classroom is at the feet of elderly people.” Other sages have mused, “You can’t put old heads on young shoulders,” echoing the Oriental veneration of age as sagacity — which we must temper with Socrates’ caveat, “All that I know is that I know nothing.” Yet, age accords a perspective of years. It is a strange feeling, indeed, to find oneself (seemingly suddenly) among “the elderly”, and, being there, certainly does not impart a feeling of “wisdom”, except on the scale of personal relativity; that is, one feels relatively less ignorant with each decade. Regardless how humble one may feel at any age, being a “Senior” does accord the advantages of scars and their effluent empirical data that seem a shame not to pass along. Indeed, if my life-lessons can save you one hour of pain, I want to do it. While my primary target is family members, more than a few have urged me to to share my reflections, my Elysian victories and tortured failures, with all. Indeed, just as “Success has made failures of many” (Samuel Johnson), “The seeds of success are born in failure” (J.D. Rockefeller). Thus, the goal of this humble website (and someday blog) is to exchange ideas and experiences with unvarnished candor and to provoke reciprocally salubrious thinking, recalling a lovely reflection of the 20th Century’s luminary poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay:
“My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night,
But, ah my foes, and oh my friends,
It makes a lovely light.”
So, let us here share and exchange our “lovely lights”.