For years now, I have had a gentleman’s agreement to write the forewords for my old student and colleague James McReynolds’ remarkable books.

I had some misgivings about my own ability to offer a forward to a book on the fruit of self-control. Self-control and patience has never been a problem for me.

When I look back across the years, I cannot remember a single time, from my childhood to old age, when I struggled with this issue. It was simply not a matter that I dealt with.

Maybe it was because I grew up under a volatile father who would have punished me harshly if I acted up at any time. Perhaps it was because I have such a irenic personality that on those few occasions when I needed to become umbrageous over something happening in my vicinity that I just did not have enough taste for combat to even thinking of engaging in it.

One evening when as I was watching one of the daily news problems I usually watch, I was stuck by all the terrible things going on in our world: the dreadful wars in Europe and in the Middle East, Vladimir Putin’s scary and unseemly lust for power and dominance, the Chinese penchant for technical supremacy, the escalating violence in our own inner cities and the corresponding arrogance of the gun lobbies at a time when gun control seems to be an impossible dream. In a flash, I realized that these are all convincing evidence of an overwhelming need for self-control everywhere, not just in our individual lives, but in the world at large.

If everybody had only learned to exercise self-control over their own thoughts and actions, we would not be in the mess we are in. People would not have gone to war because they had the impulse to do it or violated their neighbor’s territory and personal safety because it seemed to a justifiable thing to do. There would have been a lot more restraint shown on every side. Everybody would have preferred peace and kindness to the sort of problem of madness and mayhem that have become the rule in our society.

So Jim I now apologize for thinking that I had nothing to say on the matter of self-control. I do. I just do not really know what to say or where to say it effectively.

Perhaps I should begin by merely thinking about this subject and praying for its most egregious violators to somehow come to the realization that a world gone mad is not what any of us really want after all. We must amend the situation by exercising more self-control in their realms.

I could single out one or two people that I know who are violating the love-thy-neighbor rule right now and try to think how I could help them to harness their own actions and desires. Maybe I could write an opinion editorial on this problem to be published in the local newspapers.

In fact, I am moved to write a new book myself entitled Growing Old Is the Hardest Work You Will Ever Do. I believe that.

These are a few things I could do that might produce positive results in the part of the world closest to myself and help these persons to change everything for the better in our own proximity.

One thing I know for sure, this issue needs to become a big movement in our world today as it has always been for generations past. We must go beyond the desire for more peace and equanimity in our own life environment.

I can sympathize with Roger who died at age 90. I am now 91. I am writing a new book, Growing Old Is the Hardest Work You Will Ever Do.

I believe it. It isn’t easy. If you don’t think so, just wait until you do it. All life is a struggle, and the gets harder as we age. Our bodies give us lots of trouble. Our minds do not function as well as they once did. Existence in general tends to become more difficult. If we think we had trouble along the way, we just had to reach old age is unbelievably difficult. What we once experienced as child’s play compared to what comes later.

My wife Gloria, who is several years younger than I, does most of our driving now. I often just sit at Walmart and watch the stream of people while she does the shopping. Many of the customers keep up needed household duties. Many are older and have great difficulty moving among the cars to get a basket and lean on that while they push around the store itself. How courageous just be out there! I feel guilty that I just sit there watching them as they struggle. It is extremely important that we finishing our course with God. We must let the divine hand shape our final days as it has enabled us to shape our lives along the way.

Life at any age continues to be an enigma to us. This is true in out latter years than at any time in our earthly pilgrimage. If we have ever needed God, it is surely now.

Jim has started something by writing his remarkable book. Now, it is up to us, his readers and publishers, to strive to create a more harmonious and cooperative world. This is the goal for finishing well for individuals and generations now and to come to complete their lives with grace, love, and joy.

John R. Killinger

Warrenton, Virginia