The young are the kites, the aging are their anchors, transforming from one to the other in middle age.
The aging give support and love, the young give loving respect, for this is the way a healthy society works. The students in time become masters with students of their own, and so the cycle continues.
Aging is a privilege and we need to embrace it as such, for not all live in such health and for so long to become a wise elder.
They say we exchange beauty for wisdom as we age, and so perhaps that is a root cause of societal narcism - in a philosophically-poor culture we lack what we need to gain wisdom and so cling to the ephemeral.
When you become wiser with age, you become a gift to the young, a pathway of light whenever they have need of one. You become the eye of every storm, the anchor of many boats, and yet in good weather you are the wind too. Your story grows, page by page, and because you are so loving and good, it is a most wonderful tale.
The copper of the auditorium dome is like a beach awash with turquoise waves. It spreads over the imperfect surface, a blemish that only adds to the beauty. In time the roof will only be green and perhaps we'll forget the copper underneath. I'm sure it will be beautiful then, perhaps even more so, but this dome has greeted me every day on my way to buy the morning paper for nearly thirty years and I love it. I don't doubt there is already less copper showing and from day to day I never notice the change, but at my age that's the fastest rate my old ticker can stand.
This is just wrinkles over a soul, a part of me that has never aged a day, immortal as it is. It's the eyes that still dance even though the legs may only wish. It is the dreams that still play though it is only my thoughts that still can. Music moves me as much as it ever did and I love as fiercely as anyone of younger years. So look past this skin that tells of no more than mileage on this vintage car.
In aging there comes ever more opportunity to transform your loving passions into actions that help the young, that form something good for future generations, and therein is born your legacy.