Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippett

Wisdom Comes at 65
Trent Gilliss, online editor

Last winter I paid a hefty fine to the Minneapolis Public Library. I couldn’t let go of several photography books, including a pair by Andrew Zuckerman: portraits of beautiful animals — two- and four-legged forms — supple and lithe in their stillness, majestic in simplicity, unpretentious and vulnerable.

I intended to share some of these images then; I’m glad I waited. This video from Wisdom: The Greatest Gift One Generation Can Give to Another shares the ideas and profundity of those who have lived a life worthy of furrows and ridges. A few of my favorites touching on themes of work and love, conflict and resolution:

You can’t get to wonderful without passin’ through all right.
—Bill Withers, musician

Love something. I think we’ve got to learn love something deeply.
—Andrew Wyeth, artist

The human being has a need for dignity just as — like water, like air.
—Wole Soyinka, writer

If you’re willing to offer your life for it, you might actually get something done.
—Bernice Johnson Reagon, activist

If everyone takes care of their own area, then we won’t have any problems.
—Willie Nelson, musician

You don’t stop doing things because you get old. You get old because you stop doing things.
—Rosamunde Pilcher, writer

I get sillier as I get older. I don’t know what wisdom means.
—Judi Dench, actor

…who I am, and what I need, these are things I have to find out myself.
—Chinua Achebe, writer

(photo: Andrew Zuckerman)