““What is the meaning of life?” Joseph was often asked, and he would respond, “There is no meaning. We bring meaning to it.” Like Carl Jung, he saw the approach of old age, not as a mere diminution of life, but as a time of blooming. If we have filled up the beaker of life and allowed to catch fire everything that needs to be consumed, then the quiet of old age is welcome. If too much life remains unlived, we approach the threshold of old age with unsatisfied demands that turn our glances backward. As Jung said, “An old man who cannot bid farewell to life appears as feeble and sickly as a young man who is unable to embrace it.””
