Ancient wisdom

David Von Drehle could hardly believe his eyes. There was his new neighbour, wearing a pair of swimming trunks and holding a garden hose, washing his girlfriend's car. What made the scene unusual was that most people of his neighbour's age would struggle to get out of bed. Dr Charlie White was 102.

Over the remaining seven years of White's life, he and the journalist became friends. Now Von Drehle has written a book about what he learnt from the retired doctor. It is called The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man.

Charlie had had serious setbacks in life. When he was eight, his father died after falling down a lift shaft. But when Charlie told the story, says Von Drehle,¹ "Not once did he indulge in the sort of 'Why, God?' or 'What if?' questions that so naturally follow a freak accident. He never remarked on the apparent injustice of a good man's premature death."

Instead, Von Drehle believes, Charlie reached two conclusions. One was that he could get through anything, no matter how awful. The other was that "the crucial measure of one's existence is not its length but its depth".

Von Drehle saw Charlie as a believer in Stoicism. This ancient Greek philosophy focuses on living a virtuous life, controlling your feelings and following the laws of nature and reason.

It emphasises wisdom and justice, as well as freeing yourself from envy, resentment and anxiety. It teaches us to distinguish between things that are in our power and those that are not. As Von Drehle puts it:

"You must let go of the vain idea that you can control people or events or the tides of fate. But you can choose what you stand for and what you will try to accomplish." You can choose hope rather than despair, beauty rather than ugliness, love rather than hate.

Charlie was born in 1905, when even quite well-off people had no electricity or running water. He lived through huge changes - including the arrival of air travel, radio and TV, computers and space rockets - as well as two world wars.

But while many people complain about change, his Stoical attitude helped him embrace it and recognise the opportunities it brought.

His medical career was a case in point. He started out as a general doctor, but the coming of mass-produced penicillinIn 1928, Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming discovered the first antibiotic in a mold growing in his laboratory. It was used to treat an eye infection in 1930 and revolutionised modern medicine. - the first antibioticMedicines that fight bacterial infections. - in the early 1940s convinced him that only specialists had a real future.

Rather than despair over the end of the practice he had built up, he looked for a new skill to master. And as a wartime doctor in the US Army, he decided to become an anaesthetistA doctor who gives patients medicines that make them unable to feel pain before surgery. . So, Von Drehle writes, "He returned home as a pioneer in a new and rapidly growing specialty."

After Charlie's death, his family found a sheet of paper on which he had written his rules for life. They included:

"Think freely. Practise patience. Smile often. Forgive and seek forgiveness.

"Feel deeply. Tell loved ones how you feel.

"Be soft sometimes. Cry when you need to. Observe miracles."

Should we all become Stoics?

Yes: Like Charlie, we are living through turbulent times and massive changes. AI could upset all our career plans. Stoicism teaches us to be positive: an uncertain future is not necessarily a bad one.

No: We cannot control our emotions any more than we can control fate, and our attitude to life depends on the mindset we were born with. Trying to be something you are not is a waste of time.  

Or... Stoicism can be very helpful to some people. The principles of Alcoholics Anonymous are very similar, emphasising the importance of knowing what you can and cannot change.