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For someone turning 100 in December, there’s a surprising light-heartedness in Dick Van Dyke’s reflection on life. The actor admits to feeling “diminished … physically and socially” as he nears his centenary — yet he refuses to let that dim his spirit.
“For the vast majority of my years I have been in what I can only describe as a full-on bear hug with the experience of living. Being alive has been doing life not like a job but rather like a giant playground.”
It’s this mindset — that life is something to embrace, not endure — that makes his journey so compelling. He doesn’t sugar-coat the loss of friends, the pain of aging, or the sense of “being diminished” by time. But neither does he rebel against it.
Age, honesty, and gratitude
Van Dyke is candid: most of his lifelong friends are gone; his body doesn’t move the way it once did. He writes that travel takes too much of him, that he must decline events and invitations that once would have been easy. Yet even in admitting the decline, he frames it differently: This is not the end of the story, it is a chapter.
He praises his wife, Arlene Silver, pointing to their romance as the reason he has “not withered away into a hermetic grouch.” His gratitude for life’s simple pleasures, the “giant playground” of being alive, reveals a faith that finds wonder even when the body fades.
Living purposefully, not passively
He still hits the gym three times a week. He still sings, still dances. “If I miss too many gym days … I really can feel it — a stiffness creeping in here and there. If I let that set in, well, God help me,” as People reports.
But the deeper story is that he views his longevity not as accumulation of years but as an invitation to purpose. The playground metaphor matters: it’s an active place, a field of possibility. He’s saying to all of us, especially those in later years: life still invites you to play, to engage, to love, to serve.
The faith in the “giant playground”
For Catholics, Van Dyke’s attitude speaks loudly. The Christian vision of aging isn’t simply about fading gracefully — it’s about being transformed by time, filled with more perspective, more capacity for gratitude, and more readiness to serve. His metaphor of the “bear hug” fits this beautifully: the embrace, the fullness, the joy.
We have to admit it reminds us of how our 70-year-old Pope describes his attitude toward life: "There's a big part of me that enjoys living ..."
Yes, aging brings losses. Van Dyke doesn’t pretend otherwise. But he invites us to a different vantage point: When life is lived as a playground, then even the quiet days become sacred.
As Psalm 90:12 invites: “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”
Van Dyke’s heart of wisdom is clear: Be bold in your gratitude, humble in your vulnerability, and generous in your engagement with the world.
A call to the rest of us
If you’re reading this and wondering how to age well — let his words stay with you:
"…being alive has been doing life not like a job but rather like a giant playground."
Maybe that means: Embracing the present as a gift, not a comparison to the past; feeling the loss even while holding the hope; choosing joy not as ignorance of pain but as fidelity amidst it; believing that the best of your story might still be ahead
Because for Dick Van Dyke, tomorrow isn’t just more of the same — it’s another day on the playground!
Speaking of play and playgrounds, take a look at what Bishop Barron says about Mass:
The Mass, as an act of union with the highest good, is therefore the supreme instance of play.
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