Aging is not just decay, you know. As you age, you grow. As you grow, you learn. A tree’s leaves are the most colorful just before they die. If you’re always battling against getting old, you’re always gonna be unhappy because you’re gonna get old anyway,” said Morrie, in the Penobscot Theatre’s production of “Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie,” by Jeffery Hatcher and Mitch Albom.

The play is based on a book by Mitch Albom that chronicles the relationship he had with a former favorite professor in college dying from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“The book was on the best-seller list for seven years. This is a wonderful and true story,” said Scott Levy, producing artistic director at Penobscot Theatre and director of this production. “There’s this 78-year-old man who knows he’s dying but is living more than a young guy caught up in the rat race who, with Morrie’s help, learns how to live.”

As these two old friends come together every Tuesday, many of life’s mysteries are revealed, but only because Mitch is a willing pupil.

How often do we, as a society, really listen to our elders? When they give an opinion, do we internally roll our eyes? We must know better, right? After all, the world is different now, things have changed and we are younger and hipper. Ah, the ignorance of youth.

When someone is dying and begins speaking about what that truly means, how many of us shush them and say, “Now, now, we don’t need to talk about that.” But as Morrie says in the play, “When you learn how to die, you learn how to live.”

Mitch goes to see Morrie out of some sense of duty once he learns of his condition. It was supposed to be a one-time thing. And yet as Mitch returned again and again, his life changed in ways he could not have dreamed.

“Tuesdays with Morrie” runs through Nov. 12 at the Bangor Opera House on Main Street. The theater is handicapped-accessible, has assistive listening devices and also “Rear Window” technology, which is similar to watching the play with subtitles. Discounts on tickets are available to seniors and others. For information, call the Penobscot Theatre’s box office at 942-3333. Tickets are also available at www.penobscottheatre.org.

We are planning to have “talk backs” after a few of the performances where audiences can stay and have a discussion about how they felt about the play,” said Levy. Val Sauda, director of outreach at Eastern Agency on Aging, will facilitate at least one of these discussions.

I have heard this from more than one senior in my life, usually as I lament landmark birthdays: “Aging is not a choice. Our only choice is how we will deal with it.”

Hampden seniors who are no longer able to drive may have the opportunity to participate in a pilot program being developed by Eastern Agency on Aging called Rides for ME (Maine’s Elderly).

Initially, the rides will be once or twice a week and consist of trips to one of two of the local grocery stores.

But before the program can begin, we need volunteers who are willing to do the driving, using their own cars. This is a pilot program that we at Eastern Agency on Aging really hope to expand to the Bangor and Brewer area.

Interested volunteers are invited to attend an informational meeting at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8, in the Community Room at the Hampden Municipal Building. For information, call Noelle Merrill or Valerie Sauda at EAA, 941-2865.

Carol Higgins is director of communications at Eastern Agency on Aging. For information on EAA, call 942-1865, (800) 432-7812 or 992-0150 (TTY), e-mail info@eaaa.org, or log on www.eaaa.org.