Another one of those old proverbs that probably contain a lot of deep insight.
A short time ago, I heard a nice presentation by Prof. Dr. Axel Börsch-Supan. He is director of the Munich Centre for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at Max-Planck-Institute for Social Justice and Social Politics. What he said about “aging and productivity, retirement and cognitive ability“ made me quite thoughtful.
For instance: how it makes little sense to have a fixed age for retirement. Or what it might mean for a person to abruptly retire. More often than not, it first means the sudden absence of social contacts and later the degeneration of important competence.
I also was made aware of
ow important it is to live a pro-active life as you grow older. And to avoid getting entangled in the trap of “being finished” and “disappearing slowly”. And that mostly even the best of preparations will be useless. Because without an outward “framework“ that “forces“ you to continue, you will easily glide into inactivity. The consequence is that many competences will quickly get lost.
At an aside, he said:
Use it – or – lose it.
That is exactly how it is. Make use of what you have and what competence you have. If you do not adhere to this principle, it will leave you and you will lose it.
Which takes us right back to the heading:
A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss.
RMD
(Translated by EG)