Curiosity

I have been thinking about the process of growing older for a long time. In my 30s, I discovered I had all sorts of stereotypes about old people (which for me at that age was anyone over 60) and that most of my notions were just plain wrong. For example, I learned though conversations with a number of older friends that most people aren’t afraid to die after a certain point—but they are afraid to die without having left a mark or without having been able to pass on their life’s experience to the younger generation. I began to distinguish that we all grow old ‘into a cultural interpretation’ of what it means to grow older, into a story about what we can expect and what is and isn’t possible. I realized that aging isn’t personal, anymore than the weather is (or any other context we all share for that matter). Yet, our whole conversation about aging seems to be about ‘me’ and what I want, how I feel, why I am doing or not doing something, and what I think about everything and everyone in my life.