A snippet from my memoir: “Theologians in my tradition used to know altogether too much about God. Some still do.”

Distinguished composer Gunther Schuller at age 83 triumphed, in early February, at the Boston Symphony's world premiere performance of his latest work “Where The Word Ends.”

In an interview the following week, he shared with this writer his experience of later life. “I'm much wiser, much more tolerant, more gently critical,” he said. “I find that the activity of my brain, my mind is greater and deeper. I have a   mental fertility.”

“Now there is a kind of depth of my thinking and my exploring things, and every day I come up with so many new ideas, new thoughts and feelings that I've never had before.”

“I'm attributing that to living long enough; you also learn a lot and you gain from that. You accumulate so many experiences that they enrich your inner self.”

Log in and out of the website from the menu on the left.

E-Mail

At the pool for my daily swim, I found the lanes crowded. So I asked a fellow in the far lane if he would share it with me. Yes, he told me, so I climbed in.

Soon I discovered him using the backstroke to return each time from the far end. That infringed on my side of the lane and, moreover, caused his left arm to hit me several times.

This uncomfortable situation moved me to protest to the man. When I did so, he turned toward me in the water and said: “You are a grumpy old man.”

Never before had I received such an age-based accusation. When I later saw the man in the locker room, I protested that I had been the target of discrimination. He replied: “Well, you deserved it,” and then walked off. A moment later, he returned and told me: “I take back the age part.”

The moral of this anecdote?  You decide.