'Mere comes a moment in Old Age when many people realise that it would be a good idea to try to slow down a little.
For most of their lives, they have run along with their friends and colleagues - keeping up, chasing promotion, Spending freely, never wanting to be left behind. But the Race of a Lifetime is not quite what it used to seem. In Old Age, the racers have rounded the last bend. They are looking up the final straight and they can see the finishing tape, and suddenly no-one wants to be first.
The runners start to glance around them, looking for signs. Signs of weakness, health problems, the chances of heart failure and so on. It would be sensible to slow down, they decide. This is the race in which the weakest or the unluckiest are first past the post. Now, who cares about winning?
No doubt Mr Kennedy will be comforted to know that "the death of the body is only the rejection of temporal and natural ultimates" (Divine Providence No. 220): but, like most of us, he clearly wishes to hang on to them - whatever they are - for as long as possible. I don't blame him! Ed