"If you could peel the years from a man's life..."

“If you could peel the years from a man’s life, as you do the leaves from a globe artichoke, you would find him having his happiest time between the ages of fifty and sixty-five. The awful anxieties of youth have resolves themselves–he no longer jumps at shadows…competitors are not treading upon his heels…achievement has not yet lost its glamour…ultimate success, glorious and satisfying, lies just around the corner….A golden, mellowing period which brings out all that is best in a man. Kindliness creeps incheerfulness spreads its warming rays; even a little humor….”  ~ Reginald Arkell, Old Herbaceous (1950)