
                                  DOWNAGING


   DOWNSIZING IS COMMON TODAY. We see it in companies slimming 
down to weather hard times. We see it in automobiles where almost 
every new model each year is smaller - and more expensive - than 
the previous year's model. 

   Whatever the virtues or faults of downsizing, there is another 
phenomenon, downaging, which is fully a win/win situation if only 
people will realize it and take advantage of what it offers. 

   For example, remember your parents. Remember them at the age 
you are today. They were old, right? Downright antique! Yet here 
you are at their same age, or older. In all probability, you 
still see yourself as spirited and young. Even if you are 
retired, you are involved in more things than ever before, busier 
than ever before, enjoying life more than ever before. Also, you 
are in better health. That's downaging! 

   Because of improved diet, better medical care, healthier 
lifestyles and earlier retirement, more and more people are 
reaching ages that were once considered "old," yet they remain 
young. Their abilities are just as strong, their interests are 
even more varied, and their energy level is high. 

   Last year, for instance, I turned 66. At a small birthday 
gathering, one Brother congratulated me on being a "double 
Thirty-third." In fact, I felt as good at 66 as I did at 33! 
Also, I felt as honored to become a "double Thirty-third" as I 
did when I received the Degree of Inspector General Honorary so 
many years ago! 

   Why? Because I have kept active physically, mentally, and 
spiritually. Growth is a constant. With every year I live, the 
notion of becoming elderly fades further into the future, and 
"old age" always seems to be 15 years from where I am. 

   So what does this have to do with our Fraternity? 

   Many people bemoan the aging of the Craft. Our Scottish Rite 
membership's average age, according to a recent scientific 
survey, is 60.5 years. Is this a disadvantage, a foreshadowing of 
our Order's demise? I say "No!" Age is, in fact, a sound basis on 
which to build! 

   Consider the advantages:

     Persons in the age groups of 50 and 60 form the largest 
      sections of our society and are the fastest growing 
      sections. 

     More than ever before, persons in this age group have 
      better health, stronger incomes, increased abilities, and 
      more free time than any similarly aged group in previous 
      generations. 

   The "aging of America" is a real opportunity for Freemasonry! 
We already have vital, experienced members, Brothers who count 
their age by how they feel rather than by how the calendar says 
they should feel. 

   Also, as national demographics prove, the number of people in 
our Fraternity's average age group will inevitably increase. We 
have, in fact, an increasing pool of possible candidates from 
which to draw. Tomorrow's "senior citizen" may understand life 
backwards, but he will live life forwards, looking to fresh 
challenges and new opportunities. 

   Finally, our Craft's principles are timeless. In upcoming 
years, the now "younger generation," whatever its present 
character, will be ripe to join an organization whose ideals 
plumb the foundations of experience and express universal 
principles of freedom, brotherhood, faith in the Creator and 
humankind. 

   But to get to a seasoned age retaining vitality at that age 
requires a healthy mind and body as well as a spirit that will 
not give up. It requires a person like George Burns, age 95, who 
recently said, "How can I die? I'm booked." 

   To help Brothers keep "booked," active and dynamic, this 
special issue of The Scottish Rite Journal is dedicated to the 
theme of health, especially how to stay well in every way despite 
the accumulation of years. Also, subsequent issues of The Journal 
will feature a column titled "To Your Health!" Look for it. Make 
age the advantage it can be for you and for the Fraternity. 

   Whatever our past lifestyles and attitudes, let's start this 
new year, 1992, remembering the words of Jonas E. Salk, the 
medical giant whose vaccine virtually eliminated the scourge of 
polio from the earth: "Life is an error-making and an error-
correcting process, and nature, in marking man's papers, will 
grade him for wisdom as measured both by survival and by the 
quality of life of those who survive." 

                                  /s/ C. Fred Kleinknecht, 33 
                                      Sovereign Grand Commander 

