Robert Browning said, "Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be." Do you believe this now?

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Phoenix

Senior Member
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Robert Browning said, "Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be." Do you believe this now?

For me, in some ways I do. I have more confidence. I don't put up with the things I used to put up with. I like and accept, for the most part, who and what I am. I've learned that the things I thought were so important or written in stone, in fact, are not. I've learned that I can't save the world, and it doesn't want me to save it anyway. Even so, I keep writing my stories hoping to make a difference.

What I've found in most of my family and friends as they get older is that they have changed into people I can no longer relate to. There are a number of reasons for this - ill health, overuse of mind altering prescriptions, expecting others to do for them when they are still capable of doing for themselves. Failure to follow their dreams. There's a long list. So for them "the best" is not part of their lives. For me, it's a sometimes thing. Health and emotional adaptations are part of it. But the main thing seems to be adjusting my attitude to what is, rather than what I want it to be. Letting go is crucial.

What do you think?
 

I think "the best" can be yet in the future if the past and present haven't been that great. Robert Browning was 77 when he died, so that was a good old age back then, and maybe he still had Elizabeth when he wrote that -- she died 28 years before he did, however.

How old was he when he wrote it?

I thought about it for a former friend of mine, who is younger than I am and was my best friend for a brief couple of years that seemed like forever and that we thought would be forever. I thought the best was yet to be for both of us; certainly for him, whose life had been more or less crap for nearly 40 years. I believe his life now is even crappier in some ways than it was before, mine certainly is without his friendship. Not that it was all that great with his friendship, if I break out my 20/20 hindsight spectacles.
 
Phoenix said:
For me, in some ways I do. I have more confidence. I don't put up with the things I used to put up with. I like and accept, for the most part, who and what I am. I've learned that the things I thought were so important or written in stone, in fact, are not. I've learned that I can't save the world, and it doesn't want me to save it anyway. Even so, I keep writing my stories hoping to make a difference.

What I've found in most of my family and friends as they get older is that they have changed into people I can no longer relate to. There are a number of reasons for this - ill health, overuse of mind altering prescriptions, expecting others to do for them when they are still capable of doing for themselves. Failure to follow their dreams. There's a long list. So for them "the best" is not part of their lives. For me, it's a sometimes thing. Health and emotional adaptations are part of it. But the main thing seems to be adjusting my attitude to what is, rather than what I want it to be. Letting go is crucial.

What do you think?
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No, I don't believe it.
 

Browning was 52 when he wrote it. Three years after his wife's death. Up till now, I was only familiar with the first line. I always assumed it was an invitation and commitment to a young love to share the rest of their lives together.
I have found that ( incorrect ) interpretation to be true in my own life. The woman who lives in my memories now is not the sixteen year old I fell so passionately in love with, but the one who looked at me with loving eyes from her hospital bed after a lifetime of kids, grandkids, and shared happiness.

The poem is actually about a Rabbi giving a sermon proposing that life gets better in old age. That may be true up to a point. It depends on many variables. My own life got continually better until I was 75. Then my wife's ill health and my own infirmities started to set in. My older son went through a horrible divorce. My younger son fell into alcoholism and died. My wife went blind in one eye, needed a walker and had to be taken to dialysis three times a week for four years. I have no feeling in my legs now and walk with a wobble. I think I am better off than most people my age, but the last five years have been less than wonderful.

So my answer is yes and no. It depends.
 
So all of your experiences match mine, with their own idiosyncrasies. I've had some wonderful moments in my life. I've had some that tore out my heart. I love and have loved deeply. Most of those folks are now deceased. I talk to them sometimes. Now that doesn't mean they are really there, but it comforts be to believe they are. My poetic husband (he's my third) became more matter of fact after his colon was removed. I miss the poet. But, I also am better off than most my age. Sometimes I'm so at peace and sometimes I think, "Good grief, how'd I end up feeling like this?"
 
Phoenix said:
So all of your experiences match mine, with their own idiosyncrasies. I've had some wonderful moments in my life. I've had some that tore out my heart. I love and have loved deeply. Most of those folks are now deceased. I talk to them sometimes. Now that doesn't mean they are really there, but it comforts be to believe they are. My poetic husband (he's my third) became more matter of fact after his colon was removed. I miss the poet. But, I also am better off than most my age. Sometimes I'm so at peace and sometimes I think, "Good grief, how'd I end up feeling like this?"
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I understand your every word. They echo my own inner emotions. Its a roller coaster ride. Acceptance is the key. Peace and comfort to you.
 
You know we have a picture frame with that inscribed...and me and hubby back during our engagement. Dear Gawd, who were those people??? But now it makes me sad as all get out. I mean we love and understand each other more deeply than ever before. But this as good as it gets. He won't grow old along with me.

I have high blood pressure through the roof and he's growing more frail in front of me. Crap, don't feel sorry for us. Just be that much more grateful for what you have. But it's still beautiful in any case. "Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be". He would be driving the Harley to New Orleans by now.
 
Personally, I'd like to smack the Browning fella right in the mouth. Too many losses of people I love for the best to be ahead.
 
I had a horrible life for so many years with depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD. I am finally on medicine that works. So I guess the person saying grow old with me would be my psychiatric nurse practitioner. :playful:
 
It's true for me. I had a rather sh*tty life in my 20's and 30's. It started to improve in my 40's and got better and better. Then I married the love of my life at 48 and was whisked away to a gorgeous country. At 64 I'm fitter than I ever was when I was young. Life is good. It's an adventure.
 
Hoot N Annie said:
Personally, I'd like to smack the Browning fella right in the mouth. Too many losses of people I love for the best to be ahead.
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Yes, I feel the same. For many reasons, of which deaths of loved is only one, I don't think the best is yet to come. I wish life would surprise on this one though. :eek:
 
You are still a young thing as I was in my sixties and I didn't give much thought to it then either...
 
I worked as a carpenter/labor all my working life, hot coldtired long drive, etc. we made a living thus made a life, I retired at 59 whichin that trade was old…I am now 64 and this has been the best 5 years of ourlife, work part time at a hardware, out of the weather, live close to our grandchildren(12) and see them regularly…..have time to read, work in the garden and enjoylife….this is the best of times.
 
Ralphy1 said:
You are still a young thing as I was in my sixties and I didn't give much thought to it then either...
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It's not that I don't think about with the constant reports that 1 in 3 will get cancer and the same for dementia. But dwelling on it would be stressful and stress contributes to disease.
 
I was out sailing, biking, traveling, landscaping, etc., so my mind was elsewhere until my seventies, but along came a rude awakening...
 
ronaldj said:
I worked as a carpenter/labor all my working life, hot coldtired long drive, etc. we made a living thus made a life, I retired at 59 whichin that trade was old…I am now 64 and this has been the best 5 years of ourlife, work part time at a hardware, out of the weather, live close to our grandchildren(12) and see them regularly…..have time to read, work in the garden and enjoylife….this is the best of times.
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I found that to be true, Ronald. The best years of our retirement were the early ones. Our sixties were great! When I hit 75, things started down hill.
 

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