SHAKESPEARE MINUS THREE

It may not be possible to improve on Shakespeare, but it is possible to shorten him.The Bard has his "seven stages of man," and speaks them well. May I introduce my four stages, and speak them as well as I can....?

At first, young-mind-in-young body. Then possibly old-mind-in-young body. Later young-mind-in-old-body;. Eventually old-mind-in-old body. Where is this foursome written? Well, I'm not sure if any medical texts state it quite this way; however I am sure I've lived it this way. And it is entirely reasonable and logical to assume so have some of you. And so have most of the great decision-makers in our history.

* Each of us is of course born into this world with a young body housing a young mind. Anthropology shows how the animal kingdom's young are born and develop their living-capacities very quickly. While they do it in weeks or months, the human animal takes years. But as we do, we soon and permanently outpace the others.

* It is somewhere during these first five to ten years when we meet a fork in the evolutionary path. Most of us retain for awhile that young mind with which we were born, while others seem to grow older faster. Not in IQ but EQ (emotional quotient). Examples? I think of the brooding young Abe Lincoln from Illinois who carried this introspective mind to the White House when the tragedy of civil war needed it. Also, Mary Francis who in our 8th grade class had already committed her life to the convent. And then there was me who, while the other kids played rough-house neighborhood games in the streets, was in his room designing board games that simulated those games. Was that an old mind or simply an out-of-sync one? In either case, Mom had a tough time getting me to go out and play

* Later, at some some undefined moment, the body transgresses the unmarked body-border from youth to age. Unlike a young girl's menses, there are no clear cut markers here. The border-crossing takes place with neither intent nor expectation. Still, it happens nevertheless; and despite all the workout gyms and botox in all the land, there is no way back. What's particularly intriguing about this physiological eventuality is that for awhile, the mind insists on remaining young. And so this third stage of vibrant young mind seeking to survive in faltering old body. Examples? I think of that forever-adolescent Teddy Roosevelt who to the very end pulsed with passions to hunt, climb, and flex both his and the nation's muscles. Also, all the gold-chained, tight-jeaned studs I mistakenly meet whenever I take dinner downtown on a Saturday night. Forty-eight inch waistlines still strutting with thirty-one inch delusions.

* Finally the fourth stage -- old mind inside old body. With or without Shakespeare it comes to all of us. But then why should this seem sad or cruel or unnatural? I would venture it is better described as harmony. The pre-programmed (or better said, pre-ordained) harmony of mind and body. There's really nothing wrong with an old body so long as it houses a mind old enough to appreciate the gifts of its age. Here I'm thinking St Augustine, Leonardo DaVinci, Albert Schweitzer, Elie Wiesel, and my venerable parents. They call it growing old with grace.

I'm trying...!