As we age, things stiffen and start to fail.

The hair grows thin and loses its color. The skin becomes loose and loses its luster. Joints ache, flab accumulates or you become scrawny and frail. Muscle is harder to gain and keep, and it’s never as flexible as you remember.

People fight valiantly to stop these things. If they can’t stop them they hide them. Losing one inch of ground keeps us awake worrying.

But there is only one defect of aging that you need to fight: a stiff mind.

From 22 to 35 we develop policies. We get convinced, and it works most of the time, and then it becomes proscriptive. Next thing you know you have the only right way of doing things.

The world changes faster than humans live and die. If your certainty is based on what you saw 30 years ago you’ve truly given up on helping the world.

Gracefully accept gray hair; fiercely reject a frozen worldview.