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Although an old man, I am but a young gardener.

— Thomas Jefferson

A weathered metal watering can stands beside a tiny seedling in a terracotta pot against a pale blue-grey background.
Original artwork
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Our reading

An editorial interpretation.

The speaker contrasts being old in years with being young as a gardener. The two kinds of age make room for newness within a long life. One reading is a modest recognition that experience in one sense does not mean having exhausted what there is to learn.

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