You're Never Too Old To Be Bold

I'm on vacation and don't have time to write, so I'm reposting this article from August 2025

I’m posting this from Copenhagen, where we arrived by train from Hamburg yesterday.

Marina and I spent four days in Hamburg, Germany, at her nephew’s wedding. We’ll be here in Copenhagen for five days, then on to Mannheim, Frankfurt, and Heilbronn to see more of her family and friends.

The trip is stress-testing my legs, but they’re carrying me well, despite some sore muscles. It’s kind of hot for compression socks, but I’m still wearing them every day. And before I left, my doctor told me my A1C is now back to normal. On the Metro this evening on the way to dinner, a young woman offered me her seat on the train, and I accepted it without getting pissed off.

Major progress for me.

Traveling at 81 is a trip I’ve never made. But I figure I’m lucky I’m able to do it—I’m lucky I’m still here.

I hope you enjoy this reposting.

You’re Never Too Old To Be Bold

The cruelest thing that anyone can tell you is that you are over the hill, or that you’re not good enough. But there is always someone willing to tell you you can’t do something.

Once upon a time, I was an enlisted man in the Air Force during the Vietnam era (1967). I told a young lieutenant that I wanted to go to college when I got out. And he told me I didn’t have what it takes to make it in college.

He said I should go to a trade school instead. Can you imagine the ignorance and arrogance it took for a wet-behind-the-ears lieutenant to tell a 21-year-old he’s not smart enough for college?

Why didn’t he have the humanity to say, “Go for it, Sergeant.” Why did he have to come down on the negative side? Some people always come down on the “You can’t do it” side.

When I was discharged, I went to a Community College in Oakland, California, during the flower-power era, and transferred to San Francisco State University and graduated. I will never forget that guy telling me I wasn’t good enough for college.

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That’s why I’ll never tell someone they can’t do something. No one knows what you can do because they are not you. No one — absolutely no one — has ever incarnated exactly the same as you. You are unique, yet still interconnected with everyone and everything.

We are all made of stars, yet we are all unique.

My work as a writer on aging is not to be a hard-nosed objectivist doling out tough love about diet, exercise, and illness to people who are struggling. There are plenty of people who can help with those things. That’s not my mission.

My mission is to encourage, uplift, and inspire you to thrive amid the mental and psychological challenges of old age. Every day, I’m working up the courage to do that myself. I’m writing about old age here on Substack — not only to help you — but to help myself.

I am not objective about it. I’m biased toward us — adults of a certain age. And I will never tell you you are wrong. How can I? I don’t know you. I’m just a guy writing on the internet. I have never met you, don’t know your history, or how you think.

But I know for sure that you’re older, and you might be scared of what’s coming next. I know I am. Whenever someone dies, you check the obituary for their age, cause of death, and do the numbers. You don’t dwell in the future as much as when you were young. You’re in the thick of the here and now — now!

At least I imagine that’s what you do, because I do it. I believe we are more alike than different, more positive than negative, more kind than cruel, and more forgiving. After a relatively short time as a writer (four years), the responses from my readers tell me that my beliefs about you are accurate. Older adults crave empathy, optimism, kindness, and happiness like anyone else.

Happiness In Old Age

New studies show that older people are happier than middle-aged people. One reason is that we have less future left to look forward to. We’re not worried and fearful about it — we’re dealing with it.

I know all this because I’m 80 and I am going through the same kinds of things you are. I worry about whether my social security deposit will appear on the third of every month. Whether I’ll have enough money in late retirement.

I worry because he’s back for a second POTUS term, but I’ve made a decision. I’m not going to let him live rent-free in my head this time. I’ve got myself, my family, and my elder brothers and sisters to think about.

The only way to thrive in old age is to be bold. Do something new, be a super-ager, keep ticking items off your bucket list, throw a party, vote, go out on the streets and demonstrate if you can — and don’t forget to smile and have fun every day. Be kind to yourself and love your neighbor. And if you really want to be the boldest of the bold, love your enemies too.

Love is the answer.

Gary
(Written in August 2025)