Yesterday I had a chance encounter with an elder I had not met previously. I was in her retail establishment, and as part of a casual conversation I mentioned “enlightened” in terms of growing older. She scoffed at my use of that term. It was a head-bobbing, grinning-slightly scoff but I understood her feelings about aging immediately. And in case I had not fully absorbed them, she told me emphatically, “There is nothing good about getting old.” … I would like to challenge further the idea there is “nothing good” about being old. Aging expert Marc Agronin —although he is only 52 years old) — does that in his book “The End of Old Age.” He directs the reader to shed commonly held negativism about aging and look at it as “a badge of honor and distinction” and a “precious part of life.”