Thoughts Along the Path . . .

We’ve probably all experienced this – a book, song, artwork, or movie that stayed with us. Later that day, the next day, even a week or two later, it lingers. I had that happen a few weeks ago after watching a documentary at the Princess Cinema in Waterloo with the curious title “Don’t Let the Old Man In.” After the screening the audience was included in a Q&A with the film producer Arum Thiruvoth and Cambridge resident Duane Sauder, whose own life experience is the subject of the film.

Rather than tell you more about the film and about both Thiruvoth and Sauder, within the short space of this column I’d like to explore the theme of “Don’t Let the Old Man In.” First though, perhaps some context about the title will be helpful. Country music super-star Toby Keith wrote a song by that name after being inspired by something he heard Clint Eastwood say. Keith had remarked on the energy put into the film “The Mule” by (then) 88-year-old Eastwood. Clint’s reply: “I don’t let the old man in.”

What if we all have our own personal “old man” who puts doubt into our minds and whispers fear rather than encouragement? In that sense, my “old man” is a metaphor for anything that limits me from trying something or daring to take a risk, and it lets others set my limitations so that I stop growing.

Here is a personal story to illustrate the point. For many years I was disheartened by a tennis instructor who told me I was the worst player they had even seen. Around that time I read Richard Bach’s book “Illusions” which included the memorable line: “Argue for your limitations and they’re yours.” But even that didn’t take me back to tennis – until decades later when a friend invited me to join her in lessons. It seemed like a good thing to say yes to, and much to my own surprise that instructor offered a number of suggestions on how to improve and encouraged me to keep trying. Within a couple of months I was enjoying a weekly tennis game with friends. I was not a great player, but I did have fun and no one minded that my wrists are weak and I am not a savvy strategist.

Like everyone, I do have genuine limitations. Try as I might, my days of ballet dancing are far behind me. I’m not going to become a concert pianist. I’ll not win the Boston Marathon. And so on. But that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy dancing, learn a musical instrument, and exercise for health and fitness.

Samuel Ullman’s poem “Youth” emphasizes that aging is a state of mind. I have read that General Douglas MacArthur had a framed copy of that poem in his wartime office in Tokyo, as it inspired him, too. There are countless accomplished as well as ordinary people who embrace aging as not merely a physical reality but rather as a mental state over which we have some control. 5-times Olympic swimmer Dara Torres’s book “Age Is Just a Number” comes to mind now, too.

This quotation from the Baha’i writings sums it up nicely: “Victories are won usually through a great deal of patience, planning and perseverance, and rarely accomplished at a single stroke.” Whether this is interpreted literally or figurately, keeping the “old man” away stroke by stroke, step by step, moment by moment – that is the goal. And no one will ever be too old to do so.

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Submitted to Ayr News by Jaellayna Palmer May 2026