The babyboom has turned into a pensioners boom now, and people also live much longer than before. Our increased wealth, improved methods, more knowledge has made the average age of people increase rapidly – it is now increasing several months every five years.
Old age does not seem so frightening as before as your chances of dying as a person full of days are good and increasing all the time. Old age is still considered bad by youngsters, but remember – the years fly by for all of us – one day it is your turn.
The strange thing is that the processes of aging are not understood – there is no commonly accepted theory of aging – the factors involved, the processes.
But a longevity industry is prospering: substances, processes, treatments are there in a market with hundreds of billions of dollars. People are thus obviously willing to pay for a longer life, and some say a lot of it is rather good. There is also lots of research going on on a wide array of topics. Aubrey de Grey is well known – he wants us to live a thousand years. Processes in our cells have attention, nutrition, psychology and fitness too – and genes. Knowledge is increasing.
In the meantime we have to accept that one day death will reach us all. Dying at an old age with most of your senses intact seems to be a good way out for most people. There is no need to think otherwise, that this is tragic or horrendous or fearsome – it is not. It is also of no use to think like that and it will all be in your mind only anyway.
Before you get there you should look after yourself as best you can: Eat well, work your body well, think well, live well, laugh and take part. You may beat the statistics too and get a good long life and a very short bad period before you die full of good days. So let us not worry, but accept and have a fine life until then.
“When death comes make it fast and sudden, preferably in my sleep. I have lived enough”.
Is this OK or should we think differently? Aubrey de Grey and his kind may be right you know, and one day they may show us how to keep on.
So we say that aging and dying is a natural thing – what if it is not? It may be due to our present lack of knowledge and lack of proper care.
But see to it that you live till you die!
