Photo: Annie Spratt
"Society often scripts aging as a decline, a slow march toward oblivion, but that's just one narrative, one way of looking at the journey. There are indeed many who defy this script, not by denying their age or the passage of time, but by fully embracing each moment, living with a vitality that doesn't wane with the years.
This isn't about fighting aging or the inevitable; it's about a different kind of acceptance. Not resignation, but a conscious choice to live fully, whatever "living fully" means to each person. It's about recognizing that while we may not control the number of our days, we have a say in their depth, their richness.
None of this is about control in the sense of resistance to aging or to the natural cycles of life and death, but rather an empowerment to shape the quality of our experience, to infuse our days with meaning, purpose, and joy, regardless of age.
What if, instead of marking time by birthdays as milestones of decline, we see each as a celebration of continued opportunity for growth, for experience, for deepening our understanding and appreciation of life? How does shifting your perspective in this way change how you approach each day, each year, and the concept of aging itself?"
I do a lot of thinking about aging, and how modern society, in most cases, tells us that when we hit a specific age that "certain things" will happen. We are instructed to "play old" as soon as the date is right on the calendar.
Yet, there are a few around me who dont seem to play by those rules. Yes, they know they aren't 20 anymore, but they dont seem to follow the script they were given by society at large.
As an example of this, what I see from a male perspective is once men get into a job they like, get the title, and the money, they let themselves go physically and then wake up in 40 years wondering what happened.
Instead of modifying healthy behavior due to age, they stopped it all together. Then they get stuck in the system and every other day is a doctors appointment or some new complaint. All the while nothing is being fixed at the core, just symptom control which doesn't seem to work half the time.
Men mostly define themselves off their position and work, but once thats gone they are lost. This is one of the reasons when I left my careers that I wanted nothing to do with identifying with that life anymore. Because I knew at some point once it was over an existential crises would arise. The big questions would have to be answered: "What am I outside of my title and job?" Many are unable to answer this question.
So when it comes to aging, as the guru said above, why do we always follow the script? Why isn't it just a new phase thats part of this whole play? Why do we hit advanced age and do nothing but talk about the past?
Because most people have never done the work.
They follow what the church says and what the doctor says, but never what they say.
We must become self aware enough to know whats going on here. We have to see that something is not adding up.
I' am not saying getting older is easy, but why does it always seem to follow the same script? And why do people tell us what that script is?
No matter what the age, we have to wake up and realize that maybe the bill of goods we are being sold in later years is not a bill of goods at all.
You sure hit the nail on the head , excellent !