MARK TWAIN ON AGING
In his seventies in January of 1906, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) wrote to his friends the Gordons in response to their invitation to their golden wedding anniversary. This is a sad letter about the loss of friends and the changes that take place in the aging process. Twain referred to his seventies as “Pier Seventy” because of its point of perspective during this stage of his life. Here is his letter: Dear Gordons, I have just received your golden-wedding “at home” and am trying to adjust my focus to it and realize how much it means. It is inconceivable! With a simple sweep it carries me back over a stretch of time measurable only in astronomical terms and geological periods. It brings before me Mrs. Gordon, young, round-limbed, handsome; and with her the Youngbloods and their two babies, and Laura Wright, that unspoiled little maid, that fresh flower of the woods and the prairies. Forty-eight years ago! Life was a…
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