The Importance Of Aging

AGE - WHAT IS IT?

Aging is the materialization of biological events that take place over a measure of time. There is no consummate definition of aging, but we know age when we see it. Yet, subjective perceptions of aging based on appearances are oftentimes incorrect. Whenever I hear the words, “How old are you,” I stutter for an answer: My chronological age is a matter of years in existence, my biological age is vital, my psychological age is growing, my emotional age is mature, my functional age is young. I have no qualms with my age, only in the manner in which society determines who I am and what I am capable of by my number of years in existence.

“You’re 70, your time is up!”

“You’re 60 and over the hill, dear boy - middle age, you know.”

Yet the type of humour — the satire which pokes with sadness while pretending to cheer can be damaging. After the driver’s license and the ability to buy a bottle of beer, the yearly reminder of getting older persists, and persists.

. Little boys cry. Yet, when they grow up and become men they are told it is unmanly to weep. To assume that it is only acceptable for a boy to show sensitivity, hurt, pain and vulnerability and not a man takes away an essential element in expressing feelings. No wonder men’s groups have sprung up during the 1980s. These supportive groups encourage men to express their built up emotions.

The Cry opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, and softens down the temper; so cry away. Charles Dickens. “I am convinced that life is 10% of what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.” This is a sentence from an essay titled “Attitude” by Charles Swindoll. Since adopting this as my daily mantra I no longer get angry and I’m a calmer, happier and more productive person as a result.

Genetics, too, fails, because a centenarian may not have a centenarian parent. So the question is, what makes a person live for so long Your body is aging beyond your control. If there is anything natural and inevitable about the aging is that Time exists as an absolute, and we are captives of that absolute. No one escapes the ravages of time.

Time is seen as a prison that no one escapes; our bodies are biochemical machines that, like all machines, must run down. "At a certain age"it is in our nature to wear out, and die, and that is that." This overlooks about human nature. We possess the only nervous system that is aware of the phenomenon of aging. Old lions and tigers do not realize what is happening to them—but we do.

You can live to be a hundred and enjoy each of those years as a fully functioning person. An intriguing set of Census Bureau statistics cited here notes that the number of centenarians is twice what it was ten years ago- -and is expected to double again by the end of 2020. Mental, social, and intellectual activity can keep people vital and alert as they age. But because many of us have poor models for aging, we accept the idea that getting old means pain, intellectual decay, and