Europe this winter has experienced an abnormally long spell of icy weather, a climatic challenge which has shown people up in their true colours.
For some it was business as usual, for others an excuse to throw in the towel.
The difference in the response was particularly evident in the over 60s.
This explains why doctors today are so insistent on making a distinction between 'active life expectancy' and 'dependent life expectancy.
' Some seventy-year-olds are still living life to the full, and take a positive delight in overcoming every obstacle that's flung in their path.
Others, at the identical age and similar fitness levels, choose to retire from the game of life.
They slowly let themselves slip into a second childhood in which they fall victim to even the pettiest trials and tribulations unless they have the support of family, friends and social services.
Why should there be this gap? Why are some folk more resilient than others? A while ago two Israeli psychologists examined a group of boys from a disadvantaged community in Tel Aviv; a ghetto area in which crime, poverty and drug addiction flourished.
Not surprisingly, many of the lads succumbed to these temptations and became part of the dysfunctional social scene.
But others rose above the deprived setting.
Some even went on to become high achievers even though their parents were prostitutes, drug addicts or prison inmates.
The difference proved to lie in their characters.
Personality tests showed that the youngsters who triumphed - whom the researchers dubbed 'resilient children' - were active, independent, self-motivating, confident and sociable.
Many of the world's great pioneers and leaders were brought up in conditions of physical hardship and emotional deprivation, and it was this tough start which encouraged them to develop qualities of self-reliance from a very early age.
This was true of Maxim Gorky, who started out as an orphaned street Arab scavenging for scraps of food, and went on to become one of Russia's most influential writers and a close friend and mentor of Lenin and Stalin.
It's a callous society that doesn't support its handicapped elderly citizens, but a foolish state that featherbeds individuals simple because they've reached a pensionable age.
This is the most insidious form of ageism.
Politicians are aghast to learn that the number of centenarians has increased sixty fold since the start of the twentieth century.
They assume that this means a vast hike in the cost of running the social services and NHS.
But the good news, which should be proclaimed from the rooftops, is that the majority of today's golden oldies are perfectly capable of fending for themselves.
Researchers at Cambridge University took a representative sample of nearly a thousand nonagenarians and found that only a quarter of them were living in institutions or nursing homes.
A similar study in China showed than nonagenarians and centenarians actually spend fewer days in bed that elderly people twenty years their junior.
As we age we need to ensure that we're numbered among the resilient Senior Citizens, taking as our slogan the words of W.
E.
Henley, the Victorian poet: 'I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.
' Gerontologists are convinced that character plays a vital role in healthy aging, as I recount in my book Think Well, Feel Great, which identifies the seven most beneficial personality traits: Calmness, Cheerfulness, Commitment, Optimism, Confidence, Contentment and Conviviality.
Anyone who manages to develop these traits will become not only happier and healthier but also more resilient.
This was confirmed by Ray Mears, who trains the army in survival techniques, and has inspired million around the world with his TV programmes about bushcraft.
In an interview for New Scientist magazine he was asked to cite his number one survival skill.
'You need a sense of humour, because things go wrong', he replied.
'Survival is about retaining a positive mental attitude.
' www.
donaldnorfolk.
co.
uk
For some it was business as usual, for others an excuse to throw in the towel.
The difference in the response was particularly evident in the over 60s.
This explains why doctors today are so insistent on making a distinction between 'active life expectancy' and 'dependent life expectancy.
' Some seventy-year-olds are still living life to the full, and take a positive delight in overcoming every obstacle that's flung in their path.
Others, at the identical age and similar fitness levels, choose to retire from the game of life.
They slowly let themselves slip into a second childhood in which they fall victim to even the pettiest trials and tribulations unless they have the support of family, friends and social services.
Why should there be this gap? Why are some folk more resilient than others? A while ago two Israeli psychologists examined a group of boys from a disadvantaged community in Tel Aviv; a ghetto area in which crime, poverty and drug addiction flourished.
Not surprisingly, many of the lads succumbed to these temptations and became part of the dysfunctional social scene.
But others rose above the deprived setting.
Some even went on to become high achievers even though their parents were prostitutes, drug addicts or prison inmates.
The difference proved to lie in their characters.
Personality tests showed that the youngsters who triumphed - whom the researchers dubbed 'resilient children' - were active, independent, self-motivating, confident and sociable.
Many of the world's great pioneers and leaders were brought up in conditions of physical hardship and emotional deprivation, and it was this tough start which encouraged them to develop qualities of self-reliance from a very early age.
This was true of Maxim Gorky, who started out as an orphaned street Arab scavenging for scraps of food, and went on to become one of Russia's most influential writers and a close friend and mentor of Lenin and Stalin.
It's a callous society that doesn't support its handicapped elderly citizens, but a foolish state that featherbeds individuals simple because they've reached a pensionable age.
This is the most insidious form of ageism.
Politicians are aghast to learn that the number of centenarians has increased sixty fold since the start of the twentieth century.
They assume that this means a vast hike in the cost of running the social services and NHS.
But the good news, which should be proclaimed from the rooftops, is that the majority of today's golden oldies are perfectly capable of fending for themselves.
Researchers at Cambridge University took a representative sample of nearly a thousand nonagenarians and found that only a quarter of them were living in institutions or nursing homes.
A similar study in China showed than nonagenarians and centenarians actually spend fewer days in bed that elderly people twenty years their junior.
As we age we need to ensure that we're numbered among the resilient Senior Citizens, taking as our slogan the words of W.
E.
Henley, the Victorian poet: 'I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.
' Gerontologists are convinced that character plays a vital role in healthy aging, as I recount in my book Think Well, Feel Great, which identifies the seven most beneficial personality traits: Calmness, Cheerfulness, Commitment, Optimism, Confidence, Contentment and Conviviality.
Anyone who manages to develop these traits will become not only happier and healthier but also more resilient.
This was confirmed by Ray Mears, who trains the army in survival techniques, and has inspired million around the world with his TV programmes about bushcraft.
In an interview for New Scientist magazine he was asked to cite his number one survival skill.
'You need a sense of humour, because things go wrong', he replied.
'Survival is about retaining a positive mental attitude.
' www.
donaldnorfolk.
co.
uk
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