Aging & Wisdom Quote by Marvin Olasky

Olasky is trying to rescue “service” from becoming a tasteful slogan you put on a mission statement and then quietly retire into private comfort. The line doesn’t flatter the reader as naturally altruistic; it assumes the opposite: that self-involvement is the default setting, and that age can make it worse. That’s a bracing move, because it shifts service from sentiment to discipline. “Believe in the importance of serving others” is not a badge here, it’s a test: if you really believe it, you don’t just applaud helpers, you “lead the way” in resisting the inward drift.

The subtext is moral and communal. Olasky frames aging not as wisdom’s gentle crescendo but as a season of temptation: to shrink your world, guard your time, and curate your relationships for ease. The phrase “close in upon ourselves” is claustrophobic on purpose; it evokes a slow social suffocation that can look, from the inside, like prudence. By saying “we all have” this temptation, he avoids the scold’s cheap distance and makes it a shared vulnerability rather than a lecture.

Contextually, coming from an educator known for arguing that civic life depends on personal responsibility and local, voluntary care, the quote reads like a challenge to institutional outsourcing. Don’t let “the system” or the next generation handle the hard, messy work of neighborliness. If you’re older, the call isn’t to step back into earned comfort, but to model outwardness precisely when retreat feels most justified.