Age, as the dreaded, and sometimes perhaps admired, senator Cato put it, may well be considered dreadful, but it beats the (apparent) option. Although the same sentiment has not always been shared by those edged between the two precipices in experiencing dear old age, its gradual wear and tear and the sense of impending doom which may - psychologically at least - seem more tormenting than the actual thing (which, by definition, is not). But to transcend this Scylla and Charybdis dilemma, to stare into the inflexible yet seeming never immediate gates of time, is to hold the sentence of Cato in one's mouth, and psyche.
Of the people I have most commented lately regarding to this endurance, apart from Henry Kissinger, is the not yet late 39th president of the United States, the first to achieve the feat of reaching 99 years of age - and thus to live in his hundredth year, if not a full century - and
