A few weeks ago I came across a 98 year old friend from a Toastmasters club I was part of for many years.  He was standing in front of the Apple store waiting for it to open so he could replace his iPhone.

Today I ran into someone from the Toastmasters club who said Ben had a stroke this week, but since it was his night to do Humor at the weekly meeting, Chuck, another member, videotaped him doing humor from his hospital bed, and so, as usual, Ben was present to begin the meeting with a laugh.

Ben was supposed to die of throat cancer when he was 92, but stopped treatment when he was told he had three weeks to live, and now here he still is.  

I return home to the wisdom of Lao Tzu.

Don’t accept the modern myths of aging.

You are not declining.

You are not fading away into uselessness.

You are a sage,

a river at its deepest

and most nourishing.

Sit by a riverbank some time

and watch attentively as the river

tells you of your life.

~ Lao Tzu