I went to a viewing of an
Independent film the other night about an aging actress who is concerned with…
Aging. At the end of the questions and answers, she said, “If anyone knows how
to live forever, let me know. I’d like to hang out with you.” She is –
forty-five? – and she’s worried about dying already? Not a good sign.
As I was thinking about age and
its ramifications, it came to me how to, as she put it, “live forever.” Well,
not live forever, but how to stave off “old age.” (Last night I watched a movie
where one of the two leads was debuting in her first acting job at 86 – so
there’s still home Jane.)
The answer is this. If you worry
about ‘growing old,’ guess what, you’ll grow old all the faster. If you pay age
no mind, you’re more likely to grow less old (er), as quickly. Once you start
worrying more about dying instead of living, you’re a gonner. Done deal. It’s
all down hill from here, baby!
Of course, I’ve never had
children. Besides the old adage that children will age you quicker, just seeing
your children grow (much less the taxing of your energy in the process of their
growing) will serve as a near-by constant reminder that YOU’RE GROWING OLDER.
Or not.
It’s harder to see yourself as
being in your youthful years when all of a sudden your child is graduating from
high school and leaving home. It’s even harder still when those ‘children’ of
yours have children of their own. But it isn’t a required part of the equation.
You see; attitude is everything.
I’ve known women (yes, in the ‘biblical sense’ and otherwise) who have had
children, grown up with them, and still managed to not let ‘old age’ catch up
with them. Yes, some of them were in their forties and fifties chrono-logically
but still in their teens emotionally. But there have been some for whom the
idea that just because their children grow up, they don’t have to ‘grow old.’
Jesus said that to see the Heaven
you needed to be “as a little child.” A child will continue to see the world
with wonder; whereas an adult “grows up” and looses that sense of wonder. The
women who have retained that sense (and hence retained their sense of youth),
didn’t let the fact of their children becoming adults deter them from how they
saw themselves.
You ‘grow old’ because you see
yourself as growing old. (Well, eating a good diet and exercise also help
tremendously). If you see yourself as being young and carefree, you’ll tend to
remain as carefree as you can. Perhaps this is why Grandparents love hanging
out with their grand children so much?
But there is also another factor
that most people don’t put into the equation: if you believe that a Soul last
forever, then you can stay younger longer. Age ceases to be such a factor if
you think in terms of your being Eternal. This Life ceases to be something that
must be ‘used’ to the fullest, if there are other lifetimes, and ‘death’ is not
really the end all of our existence.
Think about it…
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