Why We Grow Old
It's not so much age -- as it is whether a person is constantly improving, or constantly getting worse. The surest way for things to get worse, is to deny that there is any problem -- because then one doesn't seek a solution but accepts the problem, as the way things ought to be -- ie. "just getting old."
All of life is a problem we need to solve. The challenges are different at different times in our lives -- but we still have to rise to that challenge every day of our lives. That IS life. That is what all life faces, and when they can no longer meet that challenge, they perish -- quite understandably. That is the way of the world.
Most of the problems that people accept as the normal, are conditions they can do something about -- but are conditioned (educated) to accept them as normal by whatever peer group says it is so. That's why it is good to have a diversity of exposures rather than the consensus that everybody has to be that one way -- of inevitably and invariably getting worse, but maybe going into denial about it.
Some can and do get better -- but not necessarily in the old and familiar ways. Younger is not necessarily better. Better is something else entirely different -- and not just more or less of the old and familiar. And that is the mistake many of the old make -- in wanting to go back to their youth -- instead of exploring and creating the greater life ahead, which no one taught them to do, or was possible, so they don't do it, and can't imagine it possible, or another way.
That is the very crux of the problem.
Appreciate What You Have
The greatest attainment and the key to life, is making the most of what one has -- rather than desiring, and even attaining, insatiable more, which as wise people realize, always is a little more -- no matter how much they have.
That is the first consideration, and not the last, for those who want to be efficient at personal problem solving -- before one can go out and save the world. One has to first direct that improvement to one's personal problem solving -- before it can be effectively scaled to solving the larger problems. Obviously, solving the problems of one's own health, should be the primary director in every life.
That is what it means fundamentally, to appreciate what you have -- to make it greater. That's the meaning of the word -- "to make greater." That is what appreciation does. Once we understand that, we can make a little into infinity. But we can never do that, if we can never appreciate what we already have -- to make it more.
That is particularly the problem of health in older people -- who think they can get better, without doing anything about it. Of course what one does makes a difference, and all of life is not just a random walk in each lifetime -- "signifying nothing."
Jesus said, "I give you talents, but you have to make them greater." Or you lose them. That's the difference between those in good health, and those in failing health -- whether they are getting better. If they aren't, there is no hope -- because it is just a matter of time... But most people can control their own health and destiny to a remarkable degree and extent -- but they have to find out themselves to know the actuality that is their reality. Finding out for oneself, is the quest of a lifetime -- at any time of life. That is the secret.
