Daniel Kreps
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Bob Dylan Gary Miller/Getty Images Bob Dylan shared the pros and cons of aging in a rare op-ed tied to Donald Trump’s 80th birthday.
With the president turning 80 (and celebrating with a UFC bash) on Sunday, the New York Times asked several prominent octogenarians — like Liza Minnelli, Robert De Niro, Art Garfunkel, and the 85-year-old Dylan — about the best and worst things about the milestone birthday.
“The best thing about being 80 is that you outlive the clocks that have been chasing you. It’s freedom from that lie that anything was ever under control,” Dylan said about turning 80. “You don’t chase the parade anymore. You’re an old king from some vanished country. You’re harder to program.”
On the downside, however, “The old fire in your heart still tells you to do this and that, but your body says we already did it. Also, nothing surprises you. It sounds like a luxury but it’s not, and also you’ve run out of illusions,” Dylan wrote.
However, “The really worst part about being 80 is that you find, at last, you’ve got an understanding of something that might have altered everything in the past, had it come at a time when something could still be altered. When you’re young you think that time moves forward. At 80 you know that it doesn’t, it stands still. We’re the ones that move.”
