Just as men are biologically compelled toward attractive, fertile-looking, well-endowed women; women are compelled toward economically well-endowed men; and blow flies are compelled toward microbially well-decayed carcasses, youth are repelled by the aging.
Youth have a biological and a cultural bias against the aging. Youth is repelled by the old because it wants renewal and change regardless of its merit. Youth rejects the aging because culturally we are taught that innovation and progress is the purview of only the youth. Youth also rejects the aging because to engage with and embrace aging is to be reminded of their own immortality. They fear, like we once feared, our coming declining health, our loss of spirit, our inevitable death and irrelevance.
Therefore, we are supposed to go quietly. We are supposed to fade into the background, to wear blase, amorphous clothing, to hide in our abodes and let our figures, intellect, desire and hair go to seed. We are supposed to assume our roles as caretakers and house-sitters and to be exclusively admired for reading bedtime stories to our grandchildren.
I reject this. As I advance into history, I refuse to go quietly. While many human endeavors can only be realized in the bloom of youth, there is much that can be achieved late in life and the only reason it is not realized is because we are content to be relegated to a role as second-class citizens. I will not be content. I will strive to realize every dream that is within the capacity of whatever I can retain of my body, mind and spirit.
I say, let us take an unflagging grasp upon our rebelliousness, our authenticity, and our ambition. Let us determine to agitate, to be heard, to create and to be a force to be reckoned with to make a better world for all.
Let us all- the young, the older, and the aging determine to engage and embrace all human potential, all contributions and to never prejudge or be biased against innovations regardless of where they originate. Judge them on their merits alone.
And when their merits fall short, do not pity them nor be repelled by them because they remind you of your own mortality, but admire them for the joy they remind us we all have by engaging fully in the journey and not in bemoaning the end and inevitable destination of us all.
©Loren M. Lambert September 6, 2015
Youth have a biological and a cultural bias against the aging. Youth is repelled by the old because it wants renewal and change regardless of its merit. Youth rejects the aging because culturally we are taught that innovation and progress is the purview of only the youth. Youth also rejects the aging because to engage with and embrace aging is to be reminded of their own immortality. They fear, like we once feared, our coming declining health, our loss of spirit, our inevitable death and irrelevance.
Therefore, we are supposed to go quietly. We are supposed to fade into the background, to wear blase, amorphous clothing, to hide in our abodes and let our figures, intellect, desire and hair go to seed. We are supposed to assume our roles as caretakers and house-sitters and to be exclusively admired for reading bedtime stories to our grandchildren.
I reject this. As I advance into history, I refuse to go quietly. While many human endeavors can only be realized in the bloom of youth, there is much that can be achieved late in life and the only reason it is not realized is because we are content to be relegated to a role as second-class citizens. I will not be content. I will strive to realize every dream that is within the capacity of whatever I can retain of my body, mind and spirit.
I say, let us take an unflagging grasp upon our rebelliousness, our authenticity, and our ambition. Let us determine to agitate, to be heard, to create and to be a force to be reckoned with to make a better world for all.
Let us all- the young, the older, and the aging determine to engage and embrace all human potential, all contributions and to never prejudge or be biased against innovations regardless of where they originate. Judge them on their merits alone.
And when their merits fall short, do not pity them nor be repelled by them because they remind you of your own mortality, but admire them for the joy they remind us we all have by engaging fully in the journey and not in bemoaning the end and inevitable destination of us all.
©Loren M. Lambert September 6, 2015
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