Aging is such an interesting concept for me for that exact reason — it doesn’t have to be bad, but it definitely can be.. Should we fear it? No. Should we fight it? I don’t know!
Window of light - that's exactly how I think about our conscience and being alive. We have our head above water for just a blip of time, then it goes back in, and the rest of the time goes on.
I think about death a lot. I'm not sure why, but since I turned 40, I have become increasingly more aware of my mortality. The seniors have it right... living as best you can in the face of impending death is the only option... otherwise, you're essentially already dead. You earned a sub. :)
I’m 37, and in the last few years have watched some healthy and beautiful friends of mine leave this world. Grief is a bewildering thing. For now, I try to honor the brevity of their lives by making the most of my days. Thanks for sharing this beautiful reminder.
Thank you for the kind words. I’m sorry to hear of your loss — but I do believe that acknowledging death and embracing life are the best ways to move forward.
Great essay and it has left me thinking about aging and life!
Coincidently, today I read a piece about an American guy called David Asprey who has spent millions on various ‘treatments’ to try and prolong his life. He’s 50 but he ‘identifies as 39’. There is such a focus on anti-aging and preserving our youth.
Four Thousand Weeks is also a great book, and I like how Burkeman focuses on the smaller ways in which we can think about time.
The anti-aging industry is such a fascinating product of an anxious and avoidant mind. I want to age in a healthy, slow, intentional way — not being dragged against my will, thinking I can escape.
I came from @mika and stole your star idea there! So good to read this. My father-in-law moved in with us nearly a year ago, frail and bedbound. Looking at how he is makes me so aware of my own mortality, and thinking about the choices I make around my own heath. We fool ourselves we are immortal with the way we squander time. I recently realised I better say everything I want to say (in writing) before it’s too late. Thanks for the reminder.
Loved your piece and take on mortality. Memento Mori is a mantra I've always kept in mind throughout life as a gratitude practice for everything I have now, and to focus on living a life of presence. ✨️🙏🏻
It's such a fascinating and powerful expression. I'm glad to hear that it's been transformative for you. Thank you for reading and taking the time to share your thoughts.
This captures my thoughts on this as well. It's been on my mind lately between turning 40, watching my parents get old, more recently visiting Taiwan and seeing aging society in action and a general spurt in longevity and anti-ageing related noise all around me.
Seems like there is a war going on all around me - one on ageing.
I’m glad to hear it resonated. I just had a friend return from a month in Taiwan yesterday, so I’m interested to hear what she thinks about aging there.
Ah, your line: “Unfortunately, there is always something fun to eat every” — so true! Fighting aging is impossible and sad..
And your conclusion reminds me of the famous Mary Oliver line: “Finally, I saw that worrying had come to nothing. And gave it up. And took my old body
That was one of the better black mirror episodes, good old Weasley brother. I have to admit that the thing that immediately comes to mind about it is the degree of her ecstasy when she finds out he could just keep it up..indefinitely..because he's a robot. Good times. How it pivoted that to having him locked away in the attic by the end of it is a pretty good summary of the axis of human pain to pleasure and how these things connect up in a deeper emotional sense, which I suppose, is part of the larger commentary on existence and mortality the show did so well when it did do it well.
Rose, great essay on life and death. I do not want to portray myself as very zen here, but when I quit my corporate job and started working on my things, met new people, started to meditate and live MY life I became very much ok with dying. The consciousness is immortal anyway, I am sure if you live in presence a lot you realise that you are not going anywhere. Sometimes it makes me sad to see billionaires trying to cheat deaf. I believe that there is some sort of a massive fear beneath all of that progress. Anyway, great text, however I have listened to the audio version of it. Keep up the good work.
Great, looking forward to it! Presence is the key. The trick is you have to be present to know that you should work on your presence. I love the Leonard Cohen quote on this "There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in".
Thanks—and yes, I agree with you—although my perspective is more Zen rather than Stoicism (which seems to be the trendy thing of all current and former tech bros etc these days).
Might be trendy but it works! I tend to start doing things before it becomes cool. It takes several years of being totally misunderstood but after that, everyone tells me how they started doing it and I am just "Bro".
What an fascinating article. I love how you talk about the inevitable, interwoven with AI.
I struggle with the fear of being old. I'm excited to get older, but it's almost like after I pass a certain age, things will take a turn. It's a very bittersweet concept to me, but your writing has raised questions I've never thought up before. Thank you!
Thank you for reading -- I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I think it's so important to reevaluate our perceptions of "bad" aspects of life like aging. And I'm thrilled to hear that it brought up new questions for you. That's my biggest goal with this blog.
I loved listening to your meditations on age and aging.
The project of tackling aging as a disease is interesting... because while there are diseases that come with aging, there is also such a thing as "healthy" aging. Most experiments on aging have (and those that don't should have) age-controlled animals that are not "sick." What of them and their aging?
"Longevity being the closest thing to immortality" (as you cleverly write) has inspired a bunch of folks with Silicon Valley money (and I'm sure an overwhelming fear of aging) to invest in companies that are here to "solve aging" (the healthy and unhealthy aging processes). I'm not an expert in aging in particular... but something tells me nature will find a way, and that there is no silver bullet to healthy aging.
I'll stop now, I could go on for a while 😅 Thanks for keeping me company with your audio!
I’m so glad it resonated.
Aging is such an interesting concept for me for that exact reason — it doesn’t have to be bad, but it definitely can be.. Should we fear it? No. Should we fight it? I don’t know!
Thank you for listening 🩵
Window of light - that's exactly how I think about our conscience and being alive. We have our head above water for just a blip of time, then it goes back in, and the rest of the time goes on.
Exactly. This is such a temporary stretch of time. A window of light. Thank you for using part of yours to read my work 🤍
I think about death a lot. I'm not sure why, but since I turned 40, I have become increasingly more aware of my mortality. The seniors have it right... living as best you can in the face of impending death is the only option... otherwise, you're essentially already dead. You earned a sub. :)
The earlier we start coming to terms with that reality, the better.
Thank you for reading & subscribing. Glad to have you here.
Lovely work. You’re a wise woman.
I’m 37, and in the last few years have watched some healthy and beautiful friends of mine leave this world. Grief is a bewildering thing. For now, I try to honor the brevity of their lives by making the most of my days. Thanks for sharing this beautiful reminder.
Thank you for the kind words. I’m sorry to hear of your loss — but I do believe that acknowledging death and embracing life are the best ways to move forward.
Thank you for reading.
Great essay and it has left me thinking about aging and life!
Coincidently, today I read a piece about an American guy called David Asprey who has spent millions on various ‘treatments’ to try and prolong his life. He’s 50 but he ‘identifies as 39’. There is such a focus on anti-aging and preserving our youth.
Four Thousand Weeks is also a great book, and I like how Burkeman focuses on the smaller ways in which we can think about time.
The anti-aging industry is such a fascinating product of an anxious and avoidant mind. I want to age in a healthy, slow, intentional way — not being dragged against my will, thinking I can escape.
Thank you for reading 😊
I came from @mika and stole your star idea there! So good to read this. My father-in-law moved in with us nearly a year ago, frail and bedbound. Looking at how he is makes me so aware of my own mortality, and thinking about the choices I make around my own heath. We fool ourselves we are immortal with the way we squander time. I recently realised I better say everything I want to say (in writing) before it’s too late. Thanks for the reminder.
So good to connect with you here. Viewing someone else’s mortality is such a powerful way to start the lifelong process of conceiving of our own.
Here’s to writing our way to a sliver of immortality 🥂
Loved your piece and take on mortality. Memento Mori is a mantra I've always kept in mind throughout life as a gratitude practice for everything I have now, and to focus on living a life of presence. ✨️🙏🏻
It's such a fascinating and powerful expression. I'm glad to hear that it's been transformative for you. Thank you for reading and taking the time to share your thoughts.
This captures my thoughts on this as well. It's been on my mind lately between turning 40, watching my parents get old, more recently visiting Taiwan and seeing aging society in action and a general spurt in longevity and anti-ageing related noise all around me.
Seems like there is a war going on all around me - one on ageing.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tyagarajan_longevity-aging-humor-activity-7181876652853841920-t1-m?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
I’m glad to hear it resonated. I just had a friend return from a month in Taiwan yesterday, so I’m interested to hear what she thinks about aging there.
Ah, your line: “Unfortunately, there is always something fun to eat every” — so true! Fighting aging is impossible and sad..
And your conclusion reminds me of the famous Mary Oliver line: “Finally, I saw that worrying had come to nothing. And gave it up. And took my old body
and went out into the morning, and sang.”
That was one of the better black mirror episodes, good old Weasley brother. I have to admit that the thing that immediately comes to mind about it is the degree of her ecstasy when she finds out he could just keep it up..indefinitely..because he's a robot. Good times. How it pivoted that to having him locked away in the attic by the end of it is a pretty good summary of the axis of human pain to pleasure and how these things connect up in a deeper emotional sense, which I suppose, is part of the larger commentary on existence and mortality the show did so well when it did do it well.
That episode has helped me imagine artificial consciousness (and what can go right/wrong with it) better than anything else. Thanks for reading 🩶
Rose, great essay on life and death. I do not want to portray myself as very zen here, but when I quit my corporate job and started working on my things, met new people, started to meditate and live MY life I became very much ok with dying. The consciousness is immortal anyway, I am sure if you live in presence a lot you realise that you are not going anywhere. Sometimes it makes me sad to see billionaires trying to cheat deaf. I believe that there is some sort of a massive fear beneath all of that progress. Anyway, great text, however I have listened to the audio version of it. Keep up the good work.
Thank you so much for reading and taking the time to respond 🤍
Ah, presence. I’m glad to hear it’s helped you navigate the strangeness of it all. I wish it weren’t so elusive!
And I love to hear that you appreciated the audio. More to come. 🎧
Great, looking forward to it! Presence is the key. The trick is you have to be present to know that you should work on your presence. I love the Leonard Cohen quote on this "There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in".
It too sickens me when billionaires try to cheat deaf--don't they know hearing aids already do that?
Nick, love your sense of humor😀
Thanks—and yes, I agree with you—although my perspective is more Zen rather than Stoicism (which seems to be the trendy thing of all current and former tech bros etc these days).
Might be trendy but it works! I tend to start doing things before it becomes cool. It takes several years of being totally misunderstood but after that, everyone tells me how they started doing it and I am just "Bro".
What an fascinating article. I love how you talk about the inevitable, interwoven with AI.
I struggle with the fear of being old. I'm excited to get older, but it's almost like after I pass a certain age, things will take a turn. It's a very bittersweet concept to me, but your writing has raised questions I've never thought up before. Thank you!
Thank you for reading -- I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I think it's so important to reevaluate our perceptions of "bad" aspects of life like aging. And I'm thrilled to hear that it brought up new questions for you. That's my biggest goal with this blog.
(Also funny that we share a last name!)
I loved listening to your meditations on age and aging.
The project of tackling aging as a disease is interesting... because while there are diseases that come with aging, there is also such a thing as "healthy" aging. Most experiments on aging have (and those that don't should have) age-controlled animals that are not "sick." What of them and their aging?
"Longevity being the closest thing to immortality" (as you cleverly write) has inspired a bunch of folks with Silicon Valley money (and I'm sure an overwhelming fear of aging) to invest in companies that are here to "solve aging" (the healthy and unhealthy aging processes). I'm not an expert in aging in particular... but something tells me nature will find a way, and that there is no silver bullet to healthy aging.
I'll stop now, I could go on for a while 😅 Thanks for keeping me company with your audio!