94 year-old writer, Roger Angell just won the National Magazine Award’s ‘Essay of the Year’. Angell’s essay ‘This Old Man – Life in the ninties’ reveals a beautiful lesson about life. That when you boil away all the meaningless worries and vanities what really counts is companionship and intamacy. Angall who was born in 1920 and has been a contributing writer at the New Yorker since 1944 had this to say on aging:

“Getting old is the second-biggest surprise of my life, but the first, by a mile, is our unceasing need for deep attachment and intimate love. We oldies yearn daily and hourly for conversation and a renewed domesticity, for company at the movies or while visiting a museum, for someone close by in the car when coming home at night.”

Asking himself what we need more of in our life? “More venery. More love; more closeness; more sex and romance. Bring it back, no matter what, no matter how old we are.” Angall also illuminates that our heart is on a diferent clock than our bodies: “Laurence Olivier? I’m thinking of what he says somewhere in an interview: “Inside, we’re all seventeen, with red lips.”

Please read and share this beautiful essay: This Old Man