Let's talk about aging for a minute, it's a subject rarely
discussed outside of judgment, ridicule or labeling. If you don't believe
me, take a look at these dictionary definitions? –noun
3.
The particular period of life at which a person becomes naturally or conventionally
qualified or disqualified for anything: He was over age for military duty.
qualified or disqualified for anything: He was over age for military duty.
5.
Advanced years; old age: His eyes were dim with age.
10.
The average life expectancy of an individual or of the individuals of a class or species: The age of a horse is from 25 to 30 years.
11.
Psychology. the level of mental, emotional, or educational development of a person, especially a child, as determined by various tests and based on a comparison of the individual's score with the average score for persons of the same
chronological age.
chronological age.
–verb (used without object)
15.
to grow old: He is aging rapidly.
–verb (used with object)
17.
to make old; cause to grow or seem old: Fear aged him overnight.
.—Idiom
If we change the way we look at age maybe it will change the
way we age:
The universe is said to be billions of years old, our planet
is said to be millions of years old, but who knows. Man and his finite mind
often try to convince others of something that can't be proven. It's in our
nature to want to be the ruler of things or to know it all, but how much we
know is always suspect, and so is the age of the universe and the age of planet
earth. There is one thing I think I know and that is that we use the word age
and the concept of age to judge others, mostly for the wrong reasons, and most
of those reasons are negative or counterproductive. How does that work in a so
called positive thinking society? We judge ourselves and others by age, we
predict by it, we make older people the point of jokes, and we fear it. Our
attitudes about age must be changed. Men and women live to be an average age of
85 these days and more often than not much older than that, much older as of
recent. It's a widely accepted opinion that it's due to a change in habits,
exercise and medical breakthroughs.
Last year a lady died at 116 in Los Angeles, this year a
lady in Cuba celebrated her 126th birthday and a 100 year old man who still
plays tennis, laughs and hangs out with a younger crowd was profiled a ABC news
this week. People are living longer, but are they really old? Well consider
this, if the universe is billions of years old and the planet we live on is
indeed millions of years old, then man's life span is really just a vapor in
the overall scheme of things. People die because of gravity. Gravity is the
cause of our bodies manifesting the appearance it has after a certain number of
years here in the world we live in. It pulls us down after time; it puts undue
weight on our organs, our bones and our mind. If you ask anyone who has been
here awhile, say about 80 years, they'll tell you: it seems like it was just
yesterday I was playing in a sand box with my friends, and other little kids,
where did the time go?
That's because in real time, in reality, in the overall
scheme of life and time, it really was just yesterday. Kind of makes you think
about what life is really all about doesn't it? You're here one minute and gone
the next. Think about that as you plan your life out. Could life be a testing
ground and we are the test? People should think about that when they ridicule
those older than them, because they too are aging as they speak and heading
down the same short road. Maybe they should be respectfully asking for advice
about life instead. I say make the best out of your time here, live above the
medium line, treat others as you yourself would like to be treated and above
all practice tolerance, tolerance will take you further than any other virtue
you could possess. We are all in this life together and we all have to die way
to soon, so why not be helpful to one another and treat each other with
consideration of that simple truth as we ourselves walk through a very short
life.
Actually, mankind never even gets the chance to mature
before it's time to die. And when you look at that in the overall scheme of
things, time, the earth, the universe and beyond, you'll have to agree. Nobody
gets old; we just die young with the appearance of being old. We don't have to
submit to that, we can keep going at a reasonable pace for years on into and
beyond what the skeptics call old. Don't believe in them and their short
sighted opinion, just live your life to the fullest, and do it every day till
the day you do move on to the next playing field. Stay positive about your
life, your age and your looks, because it's from the inside that you live not
the outside. Stay strong and stay long. Keep moving; don't think about
retiring, that's for quitters. Retire when your body has to retire. After all
it's a known fact that during the 60's and 70's people who so called retired at
age 65, died on average at 70-75 years of age, that's only 5-10 years after
quote un quote retiring. Break those old limiting concepts and backwards
thinking, go forward and keep moving, most of all don't listen to people who
cast aspersions about age, that's the pot calling the kettle black.
Keep up with the times and keep growing until you have to stop.
So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon,
but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
--Thanatopsis, William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)
So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon,
but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
--Thanatopsis, William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)
