Art of aging in modern society

German philosopher and writer discusses Epicurean concepts

Wilhelm Schmid, the author of “What We Gain As We Grow Older: On Gelassenheit” / Courtesy of CHAEKSESANG

The cover of the Korean edition of “What We Gain As We Grow Older: On Gelassenheit” by Wilhelm Schmid. / Courtesy of Chaeksesang

By Kim Jae-heun

People say age is just a number, but in Korea it is used to define many stages of a person’s life. Age indicates social status, economic power and even marital status. Although, these deductions are not always true, they are often close enough as people of certain ages take certain roles in society here. For this reason, aging is a particularly sensitive issue and many try to oppose the march of time by obsessively purchasing anti-aging cosmetics, dressing younger and learning the trendy dialogue that young people use.

German philosopher and writer Wilhelm Schmid’s “What We Gain As We Grow Older: On Gelassenheit,” published in 2014, teaches readers to live with time by adopting the idea of Gelassenheit ― the “feeling and knowledge that we are cradled in the arms of infinity.”

The book approaches what could be thought of as a boring topic in a sophisticated but clear way to solve modern society’s stress over aging based on Schmid’s idea, which is based on one of Epicurus’s concepts “ataraxia,” a state of freedom from emotional disturbance and anxiety. Schmid neither thinks tranquility is acquired naturally as we wish nor as we grow. He believes ataraxia can be achieved when a person consistently pursues it throughout the life and recognizes their life by fully facing it.

The philosopher provides ten steps toward achieving calmness in life. Schmid picks contact, habit, happiness, love, pain and meditation as the mandatory life techniques to seek tranquility as we get older. Such elements reduce negative energy and produce positive power. He also explains why people get old and what it means to grow old in the early chapters. He claims that it’s important to strengthen interpersonal relationships. Schmid sees rich experience and a wealth of memories to reflect on as some of the advantages of aging. He ends the book boldly by saying death is inevitable but it is only another part of life that will pass by.

“Not only life, but death is also a matter of interpretation,” writes Schmid. “Death makes life valuable. By death, people’s lives end and provide bases for new lives.”

Schmid, a popular philosopher all over the world, writes about the art of living based on happiness, love and a balanced life. In 2012 and 2013, he received the Meckatzer-Philosophie-Preis, the German prize for outstanding service in conveying philosophy to the public, and the Preis der Dr. Margrit Egner-Stiftung, the Swiss prize for his philosophical contribution to the art of living. His book on the art of aging has been on the bestseller lists compiled by Der Spiegel and German’s Amazon.com for sixteen weeks since its original publication. He has written six books that have been translated into English, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese.