A friend sent me a very interesting article. In a way, to get me out of my slumber and isolating phase of my life. It is very interesting and I am extracting parts of the article.
Lee Kuan Yew on ageing from his personal viewpoint :
"If you want to see sunrise tomorrow or sunset, you must have a reason, you must have the stimuli to keep going"
- I think the most important thing in ageing is you got to understand yourself.
- So at each stage, I learnt something more about myself and I stored that.
- So it's a constant process of adjustment.
- I'm determined that I will not, as long as I can, to be reduced, to have my horizons closed on me like that. It is the stimuli, it is the constant interaction with people across the world that keeps me aware and alive to what's going on and what we can do to adjust to this different world.
- In other words, you must have an interest in life. If you believe that at 55, you're retiring, you're going to read books, play golf and drink wine, then I think you're done for.
- If the mindset is that when I reach retirement age 62, I'm old, I can't work anymore, I don't have to work, I just sit back, now is the time I'll enjoy life, I think you're making the biggest mistake of your life. After one month, or after two months, even if you go travelling with nothing to do, with no purpose in life, you will just degrade, you'll go to seed.
- The human being needs a challenge, and my advice to every person in Singapore and elsewhere: Keep yourself interested, have a challenge. If you're not interested in the world and the world is not interested in you, the biggest punishment a man can receive is total isolation in a dungeon, black and complete withdrawal of all stimuli, that's real torture. So when I read that people believe, Singaporeans say: 'Oh, 62 I'm retiring.' I say to them: 'You really want to die quickly?' If you want to see sunrise tomorrow or sunset, you must have a reason, you must have the stimuli to keep going'.
Food for thought and to ponder. After thirty one years of working and rushing everywhere, I am still adjusting of taking things slow and just enjoying the luxury of taking my own sweet time pursuing my own activities. I do not know how long I have but I believe our lives have stages or phases. At this moment of time, this is my phase of life. Who knows what will happen in future ... we adjust, adapt and accept. Just make the best of the situation. Yes, I agree - one has to be interested in the world. In people. In places. In the little things in life ...
