Given the option, most of us would choose living long and living well. As in all great and mysterious pursuits it would be instructive to sit and talk with a knowledgeable advance man, someone who has already figured it out and done the job right. George Knox ’33 has wisdom and experience to spare. He also has wit, which clearly helps keep the stress levels low and makes the crucial difference between enjoying life and simply remembering to breathe in and out. Knox has compiled a long list of accomplishments in 96 years, including his current mantle of being Ohio’s longest-practicing psychologist. He holds four degrees: a B.A. from Denison, an M.A. and Ph.D. in psychology, and a doctorate in optometry from Ohio State University. He served as a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Naval Medical Corps during World War II, was a professor of physiological optics at Ohio State, and throughout his working life has simultaneously practiced optometry and psychology. A heart attack at the age of 55 became an opportunity to pursue his enthusiasm for running with even more vigor. A marathon runner who has broken several national and world age records in track and field, Knox took first place at the age of 70 among all age groups in a 100-kilometer run for charity. On a number of occasions he chose to run rather than drive from Columbus to Granville for reunion weekends, and at his seventieth reunion in 2003, he was awarded the Denison University Alumni Citation “for his indomitable spirit, his service to country and profession, and his conviction that age is just a footnote to one’s life story.”
NINETY-FIVE YEARS AGO, when I was only one cell, perhaps some of my genes that determine longevity got hit by a flying neutrino and converted me into a mutation (a la Darwin), or perhaps it was because I abruptly changed my lifestyle at age 55.
MY FATHER DIED during his first (heart) attack at 52. I survived my first at 55. Apparently our genes aren’t so hot.
I FOLLOWED A TRIPLE APPROACH TO LONGEVITY that I worked out while in a hospital, but did not publish it until thirty years later. The approach involved staying (or becoming) active, changing to better nutrition, and making use of the state of mind on bodily function.
BEING A PSYCHOLOGIST, I have a bit of an advantage with state of mind.
I’D LIKE TO SEE A RETURN to the way things used to be. There is a change in attitude in both employer and employee that causes much unhappiness. Morale is way down. Neither one cares about the other.
IN STUDY AFTER STUDY, patients with a positive attitude, using guided imagery, positive auto-suggestion, and positive suggestion by others, get well more often, more quickly and more completely.
IF MOST OF US REDUCED OUR ERRORS and approached the life span intended for us, ours would not be a society of biologically old people.
MY JOB AS A PSYCHOLOGIST is to help people “shift gears’ from the detrimental to the beneficial.
AGE SLOWS RUNNING, but running slows aging.
I REACHED MY PEAK AT AGE 70 in a 100-km run, and have been slowing down ever since. So now the jersey I wear reads “Slowing but Still Going,” front and back. Lorena once asked, “Why do you wear it on the back? There’s no one running behind you anymore!”
IT IS THE QUALITY, not just the quantity, of years that we should strive for.
YEARS AGO I TRIED TO PRACTICE BOTH (optometry and psychology) in one office to reduce overhead, but everybody got confused. Sometimes there would be a walk-in and I wouldn’t know whether he came in because he couldn’t see well or because he couldn’t get a long with his wife.
SOMEWHERE AROUND THE AGE OF 80, I decided to narrow the activities down to practicing (just) psychology so that I could concentrate on the area of psychology that coincided with what I was already doing myself.
MY WORK OFTEN INTERFERES with my running.
WHEN THERE ARE NO MOUNTAINS AROUND I prefer to run in the woods. My family is concerned that one day Ill be confused with a deer and will be shot or I’ll get caught in a muskrat trap. I fall frequently because I don’t pick my feet up high enough to get over those tree roots and rocks. I never break bones, but I sometimes loose a little skin.
I’VE LEARNED TO ROLL SIDEWAYS when I start to fall.
MOST VETERAN RUNNERS have a bunch of awards. Half of mine are for being the oldest runner in an event. That’s the easiest way to win a trophy – you don’t even have to hurry.
THE STATE OF MIND IS CONSTANTLY AFFECTING the condition of the body. When the mind is in a state of stress, damaging effects are being produced in the body.
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT.
IF I DON’T MAKE IT beyond tomorrow, I’m already satisfied.