We will look at a few of the stories that people tell themselves in order to pretend that aging isn’t a problem.
Most people will say it’s a natural thing to age. They will say with a calm face that yes, as we age, many diseases plague us, but there is nothing you can do about them. It makes no sense, therefore, to worry about this when you are healthy and young. Just live your life.
They will then turn the conversation in a more bizarre direction. They will begin to look for something positive about aging, such as that it allows for a generational change, keeps society from being stuck in outdated ideas, and is, in general the engine of evolutionary progress. They will explain that death is the meaning of life, and it makes us do as much as we can in the limited time we have.
This is the interesting part. When asked about their first reaction to the idea of death and aging, the same people will recall that they were scared. The answers they received to the questions \”Mom, will you get old and die?\” or \”Will I also die?\” were not satisfactory.
Source:
https://www.leafscience.org/the-fairy-tales-of-aging/
