Age Spots

Getting old sucks.

And is it really necessary? I mean, sure, the years should pass, you should become more experienced, hopefully wiser ("If I knew then what I know now..."). But is it really necessary for the body and mind to physically age, slow but inevitable year after year decay?

I believe that we are out of sync with the universe.

If we died younger, like we used to, we would grow through childhood, mate, raise children and provide for family and tribe, and then die a quick (and probably violent) death. Our lives would be active, varied, and full. And short, of course. And, not to put too much of a chartreuse lens over our short lived ancestors, active and varied would mean run around every day looking for food and finding new ways to avoid predators and other tribes. But my point is, the life span was appropriate to the time, and the pains of age and mid-life crises wouldn't arise.

If we lived longer (much longer - say a couple hundred years), then we could lead many lives. We could do the first 40 year thing of growing up, mating, raising children, and having a career. And then we could do it again, changing up one or more of the mate/child/career/hobby variables. And again. And again. And this would be good why? Because we'd have enough years to try things out, make mistakes, and find what suits us best, to make a life that can be examined at the end with few regrets of opportunities lost. To live life to the fullest, and die fulfilled.

But the lifespan now means that we live our "first" life, then at about age 40 we realize we don't really have a full life to live again. We feel the approach of our impending death, and the beginnings of our physical decay. We feel depression, or panic, or apathy, and react accordingly, coloring the latter part of our life in an irrevocable, unrecoverable way.

Because we live long enough to see what's possible, but not long enough to do anything about it.