What’s Wrong with Aging?
Our culture is obsessed with youth. Only youth is desirable. Once you get “older,” you’re “out.” Everywhere I look, there are these books and articles: “Beating back the clock” – “Ageless body ” – “Stay young forever” – “Banish wrinkles!” – and so on and so forth. Scientists say we could possibly live to be 200, 300 years old. Cosmetic surgery is now so common that you seem out of it if you don’t have it done.
Give me a break! Have you ever tried beating back a clock? With what? And how can the body be “ageless” if it so clearly shows the stages of infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood? I don’t want to stay young forever; I’d be completely mortified if I remain, say, twenty years old, and all my friends turn 40, 50, 60 — would it mean I also didn’t learn anything?