The Post’s Healthy Aging Series addresses key components for healthy aging: mind, body and spirit. This article addresses the importance of having a strong spiritual or religious foundation.
As America’s population grows older, conversations about healthy aging often focus on diet, exercise and medical care. But for Dr. Arnold Xavier Cornelius Perkins, who will celebrate his 85th birthday next month, another ingredient has been equally important: a spiritual foundation and a lifelong commitment to serving others.
Perkins believes that health is not simply physical. It is emotional, mental, and spiritual. And for much of his life, he says, his faith and philosophy of service have kept him vibrant, happy and connected to the world around him.
Born in Miami, Florida, Perkins came to California in 1954 with his family to attend a Seventh-day Adventist General Conference. His family ultimately decided to remain in California, unwilling to return to the harsh racism of the segregated South.
He grew up in Berkeley, attending Golden Gate Academy, Willard School, and Berkeley High School before joining the Navy during the Vietnam War era. He later attended Merritt College when the Black Panther Party was emerging in Oakland, where he became involved as a volunteer for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He graduated from San Francisco State University and completed additional coursework at Cal State East Bay.
But retirement did not mean stepping away from service.
Perkins jokingly describes this stage of his life as being in “preferment,” doing what he pleases. What he pleases, however, is continuing to help people.
He has worked with young people, served on San Quentin Prison’s warden advisory council, previously served on the Oakland Police Department Selection Commission, and completed two terms as chair of the Alameda County Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Commission. He chaired the University of San Francisco’s Helen Diller Stanley Comprehensive Cancer Center for 10 years and is now in his 11th year serving on the California Wellness Foundation board.
Perkins even views a hereditary heart defect through the lens of his spiritual philosophy.
That perspective may be one of his greatest lessons about healthy living. Perkins believes that kindness, compassion and community have a direct impact on a person’s emotional and spiritual well-being.
“If I see an unsheltered relative, I’d give them that $20,” he said. “My responsibility is to take care.”
For Perkins, giving does not deplete a person; it gives life back. “My life’s mission is to give,” he said. “And what I get back is life.”
He knows firsthand that one person can change another person’s destiny. As a young man, Perkins stuttered and often fought in response to the teasing and humiliation he experienced. A teacher, Jeff Tedisco, defended him and changed the direction of his life.
“If it hadn’t been for him,” Perkins said, “I would have been in San Quentin.”
“When they harm one person, they harm the community,” he said.
His prescription for a vibrant life is simple: be understanding, be kind and remember that life is not all about you.
“When we fold our arms, we can’t receive anything,” Perkins said. “But when we stretch out our arms and serve one another, we build community.”
At nearly 85, Arnold Perkins continues to prove that a life rooted in faith, service and love may be one of the most powerful foundations for healthy aging.
