Many People Have A Fear Of Aging; These Helpers Ask: What If We Aged With Joy Instead?

Even as entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and billionaires invest their time, bodies and fortunes in the project of cheating death, they’re also increasingly finding solace in something else: an ancient Greek intellectual tradition that views the natural rhythms of the life cycle—which is to say, dying—as a central fact of being. Which, most would ar

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Like death and taxes, aging has long been seen as an inevitable part of the human condition. But during the last 30 years, our scientific understanding of what aging is has improved, and with that, what once seemed impossible is now getting closer to being true: today, only a lucky few make it past 80 in good health, but what if most people did so?... See more

So what would it look like if we took death wellness as seriously as we take fitness? Or nutrition? Or mental health? At the very least, we might live life more fully. At most, we could start to see death as a celebration, especially as our lifespans are expected to increase over the next few decades.

Better aging is more a preventative and all-encompassing problem and solution set, as opposed to focusing on the elderly which is largely healthcare-related and corrective.

I don’t want to know how a thirty-year-old became rich and famous; I want to hear how an eighty-year-old spent her life in obscurity, kept making art, and lived a happy life. I want to know how Bill Cunningham jumped on his bicycle every day and rode around New York taking photos in his eighties. I want to know how Joan Rivers was able to tell joke

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A few conclusions become clear when we understand this: that our most cruel failure in how we treat the sick and the aged is the failure to recognize that they have priorities beyond merely being safe and living longer; that the chance to shape one’s story is essential to sustaining meaning in life; that we have the opportunity to refashion our ins... See more