Crotchedy Old Men

I adore them.

Along with crones, they are the most concentrated source of wisdom we have available.

Perhaps grumpy old men are appealing because of the contrast between their frail, fading bodies and their sharp, aggressive minds. Old men know a lot more about women than younger men--and I’m not talking about sex, I just mean they seem to understand women at last after sixty years of cluelessness. Maybe it’s because after spending most of their lives enjoying relative power and privilege, they’ve had to give up most of it and become like a woman themselves.

Oh my gosh, don’t let an old man hear me say that though. I’m sure they don’t like being compared to women any more than younger men do.

I have read that senility is a myth. When we are younger and forget some important matter we say it was because we were too busy and had too much on our minds. When an old person forgets something we are sure that he must be getting senile. The truth is that, for most of us, mental ability remains pretty much the same all of our lives. This is not just my observation but it is proven by research. At Wayne State and Duke Universities studies showed that, contrary to popular notion, intelligence does not decline in old age. I recall an earlier study in which teen agers and elderly people were tested and compared and the adolescents showed more traits of senility than the old folks!

Consider the contributions of people in their eighties and nineties:

~Michelangelo designed St. Peter’s Cupola when he was 83 and remained active until he was 89.

~Benjamin Franklin was past 80 when he helped draft the constitution.

~Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was in his 80’s when he wrote some of his classic legal opinions and he served well into his 90’s.

~Artist Pablo Picasso as well as cellist Pablo Casals were active into their 90’s.

If you are fortunate enough to know a crotchety old man, treat him to lunch this Father’s Day and let him be as crabby as he wants to be. Listen when he talks--he might know a bit more than you do about most things.