Welcome to the dance of life

Last week I was sitting next to an elderly man at a café. His female companion was also elderly, but she was much more sprightly. As she stood up to leave, she invited him to an event the following evening. He looked doubtful. "Please come", she insisted, "I want you to promise". He looked a bit sad and suddenly tired. "Una promessa è un debito" he told her. With that, she bade him a cheerful farewell and smiled at me with complicity.

Una promessa è un debito, literally means "a promise is a debt". What was moving about their exchange, was that in spite of their advanced years, she really wanted his male presence and he was afraid of letting her down, ever the gentleman.

Once my daughter was in a book shop and was enchanted by an old man in front of her who was asking for a book called "Benvenuti al ballo della vita." She was overcome by his desire for life and learning, Welcome to the dance of life; what a wonderful title for a book. She ordered one for her and one for me, immediately.

Looking at old people and children we can learn again and again, about enthusiasm, friendship and love.

This is a lovely poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow about the later years:

What then? Shall we sit idly down and say
The night hath come; it is no longer day?
Something remains for us to do or dare:
Even the oldest tree some fruit may bear,
For age is opportunity no less
Than youth itself, though in another dress;
And as the evening twilight fades away
The sky is filled with stars invisible by day.

 

Norman Rockwell