As Donald Trump marks his 80th birthday, the cultural conversation has turned toward the experience of aging. In a recent feature for The New York Times, a selection of iconic figures—including Bob Dylan, Gloria Steinem, Liza Minnelli, Robert De Niro, Art Garfunkel, and Dionne Warwick—were asked to reflect on the pros and cons of entering their eighties.
While the responses varied, Bob Dylan provided a characteristically poetic and philosophical perspective on the milestone. He described the experience of being an octogenarian as a form of liberation from the illusion of control.
The best thing
The best thing about being 80 is that you outlive the clocks that have been chasing you. It’s freedom from that lie that anything was ever under control. You don’t chase the parade anymore. You’re an old king from some vanished country. You’re harder to program. You’re not rushing to become anything and you’re not haunted by things that you did. You’re haunted by how little of it really mattered in the way you thought it would.
The worst thing
The worst thing about being 80 is that you still want to say yes to everything, but the world moves without asking. The old fire in your heart still tells you to do this and that, but your body says we already did it. Also, nothing surprises you. It sounds like a luxury but it’s not, and also you’ve run out of illusions. People treat you like either you’ve solved something or you’ve lost something, and you haven’t. You see life repeating itself everywhere.
The really worst part about being 80 is that you find, at last, you’ve got an understanding of something that might have altered everything in the past, had it come at a time when something could still be altered. When you’re young you think that time moves forward. At 80 you know that it doesn’t, it stands still. We’re the ones that move.
The consensus among the group highlighted a shift toward clarity, though many noted the inherent tragedy of outliving loved ones. When asked for advice for the President, the responses were varied. While some, like Gloria Steinem and Dionne Warwick, offered blunt suggestions, others like Robert De Niro focused on the importance of surrounding oneself with honest counsel.
The president doesn’t listen to advice. He surrounds himself with feckless clowns who keep their positions by supporting his every whim. If I were able to pierce the shell of cruelty, greed, corruption and stupidity for one piece of advice … I would advise him to get some good advice from good people, and follow it.
Ultimately, the reflections serve as a sobering reminder of the passage of time, offering a rare, intimate look at how some of the world’s most influential figures navigate the later stages of life.
