Getting Old: How to Age Successfully
Dr. Aryn Ziehnert
In the JRR Tolkien classic The Hobbit, there is a scene in which our hero, one Bilbo Baggins, is lost in the dark exchanging riddles with Gollum, who intends violence and wouldn’t hesitate to harm Bilbo. These riddles are a matter of life and death: if Bilbo wins this contest of wits, then Gollum has to show him the way out of the tunnel; if Bilbo loses, however, he becomes Gollum’s dinner. In this high-stakes exchange, one of the riddles that Gollum poses for Bilbo goes something like this: This thing all things devours: Birds, beasts, trees, flowers; Gnaws iron, bites steel; Grinds hard stones to meal; Slays king, ruins...
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