Judge Tom M. Allen, 32°

I don't mind aging, but I can't cope with becoming old.

To be old in attitude is to be feeble in mind, body, and spirit; to lose one's sense of humor and reason for living; to exist without purpose or pleasure. I don't want to become old. Aging is my choice.

My hair may turn white and my teeth darken with age. My drive in life may slow, but my motor will still be running. I don't want to become old and forget what it was like to be young and to care. I still want the thoughts of yesteryears and to smile at remembering them. When you are old, nothing matters but dying. I don't want simply to hang on, become old, and finally die. I'd rather age gracefully into an earlier grave.

I don't mind watching my aging take place, where my eyes and ears see and hear a little less, my legs weaken, and my desires become few. Let me age, for so I must, but with the grace of a gazelle, the sureness of the sunset, the pace of a tortoise. Don't let me grow old with the speed of a cheetah, or with the insensibilities of a rhinoceros, or the indifference of a sloth.

I want to enjoy each feeling and emotion encountered, so let the taste of life linger with me, if only in memory. And even with the aches and pains of aging, I still do not want to become old. Rather, let me age into tomorrow.