Editor:
Did you hear what he said, he being Nelson Mandela?
From his hospital bed in 2011 he announced, “I am not sick, I am old.”
Being 76 years old myself, and not always of sound body and mind, I find this statement to be dazzling and diamond-like in its clarity.
Mandela tells me I, too, am simply old; that my state is simply the most natural state in the course of all events; that there was nothing wrong with Mandela and there is nothing wrong with me; that I am but participating in the grandest theme in the universe; and my own added thought — how lucky I am to be participating at all.
Is it my misfortune to be not always up to the game?
Hardly. It is my good fortune to have been able to play at all. If I repeat this often enough, I may believe it myself.
Bobbie Glasheen
Idyllwild
