Words to consider!!

“How to Be Old”



It is easy to be young, (Everybody is,
at first.) It is not easy
to be old. It takes time.
Youth is given; age is achieved.
One must work a magic to mix with time
in order to become old.

Youth is given. One must put it away
like a doll in a closet,
take it out and play with it only
on holidays. One must have many dresses
and dress the doll impeccably
(but not to show the doll, to keep it hidden.)

It is necessary to adore the doll,
to remember it in the dark on the ordinary
days, and every day congratulate
one's aging face in the mirror.

In time one will be very old.
In time, one's life will be accomplished.
And in time, in time, the doll––
like new, though ancient––will be found.

- May Swenson

One thing about purging and sorting and filing and going through the collected papers and cards and letters and journals and photos and newspaper clippings and notebooks of the last 50+ years is that every so often you find something "new," something you don't quite remember saving.  You are not sure where it came from or why you even put it in the box or the file where you just found it.

May Swenson is a  well-known American poet.  She is also the oldest sister of an old friend of ours, Paul Swenson.  Paul was married to Sharon - and they were good friends of ours in our U of U days.  Paul and Sharon loaned us their car to bring Bonny home from the hospital.  Paul and Sharon had too many cats, so they gave Elizabeth to us - and we loved Elizabeth so much.  Sharon taught Bonny to chew gum when she was about 15 months old.  It was quite an accomplishment and drew rave reviews wherever we went.  We visited them in Cedar City one summer on our way to California - Sharon's parents had a ranch there - and I had my one and only experience of riding a horse.

Later on, after Paul and Sharon divorced and Sharon was teaching at BYU, both Harry and Hannah had occasion to be associated with her - and of course they loved her as much as we do!

This is all background material.  I could write a book about those years at the U. But right now I am impressed that I "found" this poem right now, right when I am certainly "feeling old" as I go through the collected remnants of so many years.

(Let me add a note here, in case you are not familiar with the poet May Swenson, that she is well-known and well-regarded in literary circles.  I come across her poems often in the anthologies we use teaching English at school.)

Lots to think about here - wouldn't you say?  Those of you who are "old" anyway!!