Editorial August 28, 1978 Issue

Over the hill...

Naomi Price

When that phrase is used literally in the context of a crosscountry vacation trip, it conjures up a vision of something good. When we get "over the hill" we will enjoy a wider, more beautiful prospect. And from there on, we may be assured, it's easy going all the way home.

There's nothing to dread about going over the hill. Quite the reverse. We are promised wider possibilities, a greater feeling of joy and fulfillment. It is sad, then, that a phrase which has such promising connotations when used literally should be so downgraded in its popular, metaphorical sense as to imply a state of deterioration in old age—a narrowing view, horizons closing in, less joy, increasing struggle to keep going in what may seem to be an ever-steepening uphill climb of daily living.

But Christian Science insists that we can rescue the phrase even when it is used in connection with human life and passing time. We can restore to the words "over the hill" the meaning of happy anticipation of good. In fact, joyful expectancy always should accompany them, since, according to divine law, efforts to progress on an upward—a spiritual—course in line with divine Principle cannot fail to have their reward. As Mary Baker Eddy says in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "Except for the error of measuring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man would enjoy more than threescore years and ten and still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise. Man, governed by immortal Mind, is always beautiful and grand. Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty, and holiness." ^{Science and Health, p. 246;}