American Aging & Mortality.

The first thing you should know about this entry is that I am 28 years old, and as such I will be writing from the perspective of a 28 year old American male. 

Of the numerous concepts which do not make sense to me, perhaps chief among them is the Western aversion to death and aging. What do death and aging have in common? The answer is: they are both inevitable. At this juncture in our evolution, we have not found a means of staving off the effects of aging up to and including death. We have made heroic leaps in the prevention of illnesses which were once the kiss of death such as diabetes, the plague, and even influenza. 

Heroics aside, we have not found the magic bullet that would terminate the possibility of death. What's more, one school of thought isn't in any real hurry to find a means of it. (to lump one side of the world grossly: Eastern philosophy) Yet we find in Western culture this generalized revile of aging and death, when in reality these can be perceived as truly beneficial components of being alive.

First I will address aging. In the beginning I wrote that I am 28 years old. To this point I have been an avid runner, I have spent many years a vegetarian - and many not - but by and large I have tried to live well. Given my exposure to plentiful Eastern philosophy readings, I can tell you that I've decided to live well, not to prolong the occurrence of death, but to simply make my time alive more enjoyable. To age better, perhaps. I acquiesce to aging and death, as we all should (for it is inevitable), but I do not acquiesce to being torn apart by the rigors of time. Some aches and pains are doubtless inevitable, but this is by no means a rigid rule. I have found many examples of aging well in my time so far.

To expand upon the premise of aging well, I also speak of aging well mentally and spiritually. To make this lesson absurdly simple, I would say less time should be spent watching TV and more time should be spent reading meaningful books. I do not want to seem condescending in recommending this, it is just that I have found life easier to understand through reading various books (especially philosophical efforts). I am beginning to realize that the torment of my early 20s has given rise to a feeling of peace and understanding in my later 20s. It used to be that when I learned new, perception-altering lessons through reading, I would despair that the rest of the world simply did not understand. Now, I know it is incumbent upon me to try my very best to bring out the best in those around me and bring meaning to every day life. And at the end of the day, if my efforts have failed, well, I offer a quote from General Patton: "If man has given his best effort, what else is there?"

Second, dying. We must all die. Does that seem grim to read? In Buddhist writings there is a certain peace accompanying death, because it terminates the cycle of suffering. We have an allotted amount of time to be alive (how much time is hard to say), and in that time we should derive as much meaning and virtue from life as we can. Within the parentheses of being alive, may you eventually find that money and status are only filler and do not give worth to what is within the parenthetical context of this life. As I liken birth to the open parenthesis, I liken death to the closed parenthesis. Here is why: without death, it is very hard to put value into a life lived, just as it would be difficult to interpret a parenthetical statement which has no ending parenthesis. Organically we know this to be true, and that is why a person's death summons family and friends to the graveside where we all process the worth of the individual as applied to each of our individual lives.

Death is part of what gives this beautiful life meaning. If we were to carry on living, we would have difficulty realizing the preciousness of simply breathing, of smiling, of being alive! So you see (or perhaps you still fear death and you don't see) how death is actually very beautiful. When I die, I would hope that my body is so tired from all its meaningful use that death will simply be welcome, that the closed parenthesis will allocate some sense of worth and meaning to these efforts I have exerted over the course of my life.

If you have never read books containing Eastern philosophy, I would recommend it. There is little sense living in paranoia of death, which is a certainty for all of us.

I finish this post as a 28 year old male, who is trying to age as well as he can, so that I may live meaningfully for myself and for others. There is still so much I don't know and so many aches and pains I have surely never experienced, but I do know that I don't fear death, and I embrace my inevitable aging.