"Grey hair is the crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness."
Proverbs 16.31
"Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be.”
Robert Browning (Rabbi Ben Ezra)
There's a lot of them about, and the number of those over sixty five years of age is increasing in proportion to the rest of the population. The care of the elderly is becoming quite an industry, and by the end of the century the number will constitute one in eight of the community.
The Jews divided old age into three groups. From sixty to seventy was regarded as the beginning of old age. From seventy to eighty was the 'time of the grey head' and eighty plus were the advanced years.
The psalmist said that we should number our days and apply our hearts to wisdom. As we cannot number those still to come, I presume he was referring to those behind us. The candles on the cake!
By the time we reach our sixties, we will have seen quite a slice of fife. The beautiful and the ugly; the nice and the nasty. Youth, having long since gone with all its dreams, fantasies and mistakes makes life look like a room when the Christmas decorations have been taken down. One faces reality. The rose coloured spectacles have been discarded, possibly replaced with bi-focals.