Does Age Matter? Yeah, But We’re Overplaying It!

The inevitable seems to be consuming us!

Maybe it’s just me. Have you noticed how massive the parade has become of folks commenting on, conjecturing about, agonizing over, second-guessing, fixing, denying, snake-oiling, and profiteering from the concept of aging?

We “modern elders” are kicking up quite a fuss about this irreversible phenomenon.

It’s understandable. The youngest baby boomer hits 58 this year and the oldest is looking a ninth decade in the eye. And that’s a group that has never been known for being all that quiet and complacent. 

What’s it all about, Alfie?

Is all this commotion about aging an anxiety-based “gnashing of teeth  and ripping of robes?” Or is it an objective view of the inevitable with a touch of positivity? 

It’s kinda my space so I read a lot of this stuff and consider it a bit of both i.e. mostly anxiety-based objectivity. 

We’re smart enough to appreciate the inevitable nature of it i.e. objectivity. But we can tend to be a bit naive about the extent to which we can alter the course of it. 

OK – I know. I’m a poster child for altering the course of it with my goal of reaching 112 1/2. 

But, I get a bit riled up with all the anti-aging and age-reversal stuff flying around the net – magic creams, untested supplements, tantalizing and unfounded hints by microbiologists that we are on the verge of finding the magic to reverse aging. Especially considering that there is a better than even chance that those most desirous of an anti-aging or reversal formula spend an inordinate amount of their income at fast-food restaurants and much of their time being one with a voice-activated remote. 

Ashton nailed it!

That’s why I appreciated a recent article by Ashton Applewhite published on Medium.com and on the Neo.life website. (Here’s a link to the Medium post).

Gotta love the headline:

I Hope I Get Old Before I Die

You may already know Ashton. She’s a prolific writer, author of the best-selling book “This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism” and a leading spokesperson for the emerging movement to raise awareness of ageism and to dismantle it.

I encourage you to read the article as she puts a balanced spin on aging with more of a positive flavor than most of what you will read.

I’ll entice you with this excerpt (the bolding is mine):

Goal #1: longer lives

“Aging isn’t something debilitating that bushwhacks us somewhere north of mid-life. Aging is living and living means aging. Nor is aging a disease; otherwise life, too, would be a disease. As British journalist Anne Karpf put it to NPR’s Brian Lehrer, “You can no more be anti-aging than anti-breathing.” Part of the distinction is semantic: make the target “age-related functional decline,” not “aging.” The “root cause of aging” is the passage of time, not cell senescence. At the end of all that living, we die. If the goal is to prevent death, whether by freezing ourselves in cryonic vats or by achieving what scientist Aubrey de Grey calls “longevity escape velocity,” let’s describe it accurately: not anti-aging but anti-dying.”

Can’t we all relate to “age-related functional decline?”

I like that better than saying I’m getting old.