Now I am an old man, but in my youth, on my first trip to Europe, many years ago, we visited very briefly 3 islands near Athens. One of those islands was the marvelous island of Hydra. I remember overlooking its marvelous harbour from the ship when we disembarked. It was a classic view of a Greek island. I was stunned by the beauty. What more could anyone want?
On that small island there were no cars. If you needed transportation you could enlist the help of a burro to get you up the surrounding hills. Leonard Cohen had lived there with hsi muse, the inspiration for that great song Suzanne.
Daniel Klein, another old man, wrote a wonderful little book about a month he spent on the island. He called the book, Travels with Epicurus: A Journey to a Greek Island in search of a Fulfilled Life. I highly recommend it, for everyone, but particularly old men. It was given to me by one of my old law partners who shamelessly avoided following the wise counsel offered in the book.
Early in the book Klein describes how, Aegean islanders like to tell a joke about a prosperous Green American who visits one of the islands on a vacation. Out on a walk, the affluent Greek American comes upon an old Gentleman sitting on a rock, sipping a glass of ouzo and lazily staring at the sun setting into the sea. The American notices there are olive trees growing on the hills behind the old Greek but they are untended, with olives just dropping here and there onto the ground. He asks the old m an who the trees belong to.
“They’re mine,” the Greek replies.
“Don’t you gather the olives?” the old Greek asks.
“I just pick one when I want one” the old man says.
“But don’t you realize that if you pruned the trees and picked the olives at their peak, you could sell them? In America everybody is crazy about virgin olive oil, and they pay a dammed good price for it.”
“What would I do with the money? the old Greek asks.
“Why, you build yourself a house and hire servants to do everything for you.’
“And then what would I do?”
“You could do anything you want!”
“You mean, like sit outside and sip ouzo at sunset?”
I read this short passage to some friends of mine. One of them said, “If it rains I would rather sit inside this wonderful cabin I have built to keep out of the rain, rather than sit on a rock staring at the sun.” “True,” I said, but you built it when you were young. Now you are old, you should enjoy what you have built. In rain or in sun. You have done the work, so enjoy the fruits of your labour. Stop striving for more. More, like perfection, is often the enemy of the good.
This to my mind sums up the Philosophy of the Greek philosopher Epicurus in a neat nutshell. The Old Greek man was content. He didn’t want to do the striving he did as a young man, to earn a living to support his life. He need not do that anymore. He could sit and drink ouzo and stare at the sunset, because that was what he wanted to do. Young men can’t do that; old men can. Young men must strive; old man have done it.
Been there. done that.