When Life Begins

While in a mellow mood the other evening we wrote to a college classmate and expressed the sobering thought that with a twenty-fifth reunion coming up, two-thirds of our lives lie behind us. Graduation marked the first period, reunion will close the next 25 years, and most of us will be lucky if we last out another similar period of time.

Our classmate's reaction was prompt and indignant. "Maybe you can substantiate this in terms of years," he wrote, "but from the standpoint of contribution potential I'd guess that each of us has five or ten times more of his life to live than he has lived up to now."

We pass on that thought, fellow middle-aged readers, as both an encouragement and a challenge.