Aging. A different point of view.

Why I plan on being Holy Shit old.

The dictionary meaning is as boring as a paper written about aging.

Aging; “the process of growing old.” Well that sure told us a lot.

Here is another one from some scientific paper. A New Definition of Aging by Thomas Flatt. “…a decline or loss (a “de-tuning”) of adaptation with increasing age, caused by a time-progressive decline of Hamilton’s forces of natural selection.” Who the hell is Hamilton?

But that same paper goes on to say “ Most evolutionary biologists define aging as an age-dependent or age-progressive decline in intrinsic physiological function, leading to an increase in age-specific mortality rate (i.e., a decrease in survival rate) and a decrease in age-specific reproductive rate (e.g., Medawar, 1955; Williams, 1957; Rose, 1991; Partridge and Barton, 1996; Tatar, 2001; Promislow and Bronikowski, 2006; Flatt and Schmidt, 2009; Bronikowski and Flatt, 2010; Fabian and Flatt, 2011). Rose (1991), for example, in his seminal book on the evolution of aging defines aging as “a persistent decline in the age-specific fitness components of an organism due to internal physiological degeneration.”

Whew.

Are you asleep yet? My mind stopped paying attention after “Most”. As for evolutionary biologists, I do not know any.

I appreciate these people who study us. I also love people who study bumblebees and diamonds and tree frogs and fog. Bless their hearts.

But for me, (of course, I am writing this , so it is my opinion) aging is living. LIVING. No aging = no life. As in dead. The minute we’re born we’re aging. And we celebrate it!!! It is a big deal. And we should go on celebrating it until the last breath tells us there is no more aging and then we can say we had a damn good time. It was a roller coaster ride. It was the best of times it was the worst of times and here we are, all finished and ready for the next adventure.

So right away I am bumping into definitions. And by bumping into, I mean knocking down. And I recommend you do a little knocking down too. Here are some places that need the sledge hammer.

“Oh, she looks good for her age.”

“He is aging well.”

“You sure don’t look your age”

What is this crap? Is there some book I missed or class or TV show about what people are supposed to look like at a certain age? The encyclopedia of years. I can see it now. Where do they keep that in the bookstore?

Are they comparing you to some movie star that is air brushed and photo shopped? Are they comparing you to their grandmother or Uncle Bud who smoked three packs a day and worked in the mines?

These statements are particularly a pile of shit if they are coming from someone who is a lot younger. Or more likely now, some anonymous person on a social media site who feels it is their responsibility to comment on everyone else rather than getting on with their own lives.

And stop it with the OLD jokes. Are these the same people who laughed at gay jokes or blond jokes or redneck jokes? STOP IT. You still have another half of life to live.

And then there is this wonder of wonders from “Introduction to Sociology — 1st Canadian Edition. Chapter 13. Aging and the Elderly

“The older adult population can be divided into three life-stage subgroups: the young-old (approximately 65–74), the middle-old (ages 75–84), and the old-old (over age 85).”

Okay. So now it all seems clear. ??? But, where does that leave anyone after old-old? Ancient old? Fossilized old? Really wrinkly old? Older than dirt old? I’m not going there old?

I plan on living way over 100. I believe I wrote down 130. I plan on being Holy Shit old.

Well someone needs to get this right because according to UN projections there will be 2 BILLION people over 60 by the year 2050. And that, good people, will be 22% of the world’s population. To give you an idea of how many people that will be, it would take you 79.25 years to count to 1 billion let alone 2 billion. Do not line us up. You will regret it.

So, give it up with the age categories. We are a massive wave of humanity and there are going to be some big changes coming. We are beyond smart. We have seen stuff you would not believe. We have cleaned up more messes than you can shake a stick at. We have been to hell and back and then flung around one more time for good measure.

We are living longer and longer too, and will continue to age as medical improvements, organic food sources and wellness practices continue.

We are a human resource dream. Trained, specialized, experienced, competent, resourceful, creative, ingenious, capable, dependable, responsible. You can add more. We are a force to be reckoned with. We are recreating our lives by the millions. We are becoming entrepreneurs, thought leaders, writers, speakers, inventors, scientists, futurists, artists, adventurers, and even politicians.

What I am saying is that it is time to. . . what is that new phrase? Oh yes. Reframe. It is time to reframe how we define aging. Maybe even better would be to de-frame it and see what happens. I’m predicting Magic.

#DisruptAging