Thoughts on Aging

"Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art."

--Eleanor Roosevelt 

I have been thinking a lot lately about the aging process. What I have observed, seemingly, is that in the first half of life, it’s relatively easy to guess someone’s approximate age, whereas in the back half of life, determining someone’s age is much more difficult. Sure, genetics is a factor, but I believe that your ancestry plays a minimal role in determining how well you age. What if we decided to stop tracking our age? How old would we be if there wasn’t a number attached to it? 

I believe that the core of who you are doesn’t change much as you age. Your body changes, but you are always essentially the same person. Those that choose to live life with pessimism, and those that relish the role of the victim, are prime candidates to embrace their age as another excuse to confirm that their outlook on life is justified. On the other hand, those that live life, peering through eyes that are optimistic and hopeful, will see aging as the time to reap a bountiful harvest, and feel comfort in knowing that they have a bank account that is full of knowledge. 

The benefit of aging is that you understand, for the most part, how your life worked out. The unknown future is no longer a significant factor, as it was when we were young. We never stop learning and developing, but we are now free to apply newly found knowledge in a way that was never possible when we were younger. 

There are two key attributes that I have noticed as ‘common threads’, with regard to people that appear more youthful than their age;

1. A playful spirit. I find that those people who believe that play is to be taken seriously, and have the ability to sort through, and balance the serious side of life, always have a youthful glow and vibrancy about them. Those that cease playing, grow old.
2. The ability to love. Being able to love is the great preserver of youth, and inevitably, those that radiate youth, have a caring, giving, nurturing, and compassionate nature. Maybe this is where the term ‘young at heart’ comes from. 

Thank God that wrinkles aren't painful. The key is to make sure that your heart and soul don’t develop wrinkles. 

Eubie Blake, at the age of 100, said; "If I'd known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself." I don’t think that Eubie was just talking about his body.