Old Age Sux!

Groucho Marx demonstrated his knowledge about ageing. He observed that: 'Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough', and 'Growing old is something you do if you're lucky'. But what about really old age, old old age, or over-the-hill old age?

I recently overheard an ageing beauty telling her companion, 'Old age doesn't have much going for it. In fact, it stinks!' She then went on to complain about her rheumatism, weak bladder, lack of energy, forfeiting her driver's licence, and the list went on and on, attributing those things to what she associated with 'old age'. Whinging about getting old has become, for many, one of their favourite pastimes.

There is a case to support the whinges, of course. Modern medical science has helped to add years to life. In days gone by, a heart attack or stroke would signal the end, but now stents, bypasses, and wonder drugs can extend life even further. It doesn't follow, however, that increased longevity automatically includes an increase in quality. For many people, alive has become the new dead.

Adding years to one's life without a subsequent increase in life to those years is little more than a waste of time.

Despite the modern flavour of this discussion, it's a pretty old story. Thousands of years ago, Aristotle observed that there was nothing to look forward to in old age. And Plato's Republic makes mention of the whinging about old age. And a few hundred years later, Seneca pointed out that, 'more living is not good, but living well is'.

Quality, and not quantity only is the BIG issue.

What to do about it is hardly 'New Age'. In Travels with Epicurus, Daniel Klein (he's in his 70s) resolves not to dwell on something, like growing older. He acknowledges that that that is beyond his control. Instead, he says, 'I would rather try to figure out how to spend my time in the best possible way'. (If you'd like some essential 'how-to' in relation to this, I have developed a life-quality pill whose ingredients are what I call the '5Fs'. Those 5Fs are Food, Fitness, Friendship, Future, and Finances. A free copy of details of this 'pill' will soon be able to be downloaded from my site.)

A couple of weeks ago, I bumped into a fellow whom I hadn't seen for some time. He told me that, since we last crossed-paths, his father had died. He told me that his father had a heart attack: he was 65 years-old. At the funeral, the fellow said, people came-up to him and said things like, 'He was so young', 'He was too young to die', and 'He was in the prime of his life, such a shame'.

The fellow told me that he could remember going to his grandfather's funeral. By a strange coincidence, the grandfather was 65 when his heart stopped beating. The fellow told me that he can remember people coming-up to him at the funeral saying things like, 'He had a good innings', 'He lived a long life', 'He was so lucky to have lived so long'.

Our concept of ageing is changing. What was once considered 'old' is not the case today. As our concept of quantity changes, so too must our continuing search for improved quality. Perhaps our aim should be to die young, as late as possible? To help achieve this, I recommend getting on the pill-the Life-Quality Pill, that is.

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