<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">Affirmation</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38); min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">To grow old is to lose everything. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">Aging, everybody knows it. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">Even when we are young, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">we glimpse it sometimes, and nod our heads </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">when a grandfather dies.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">Then we row for years on the midsummer </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">pond, ignorant and content. But a marriage,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">that began without harm, scatters </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">into debris on the shore, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">and a friend from school drops </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">cold on a rocky strand.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">If a new love carries us </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">past middle age, our wife will die </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">at her strongest and most beautiful. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">New women come and go. All go. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">The pretty lover who announces </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">that she is temporary</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">is temporary. The bold woman,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">middle-aged against our old age,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">sinks under an anxiety she cannot withstand. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">Another friend of decades estranges himself </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">in words that pollute thirty years. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">Let us stifle under mud at the pond's edge </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">and affirm that it is fitting</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">and delicious to lose everything. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38); min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Donald Hall </div></div></body></html>