Growing old with elegance

By Lee Sun-ho

Every human being, in the process of becoming older, has to go through birth, aging, illness and death. There is no exception to this rule of game in life. Taking life for granted, time knows no master, and as it goes along, we are subject to all of its positives and negatives. Experience is there for a reason, and mistakes are part of it, no doubt.

Growing old is not something everyone takes seriously until one first becomes an adult. But when they reach a certain age, they find it difficult to accept. As a matter of fact, they are so eager to grow up that they say their age in fractions, like “I am 16 going on 17.” But they never say: “I am 69, going on 70.”

So they get to their 20s, turn 30s, push 40s, reach 50s, make it into 60s, and hit 70s. When they get into their 80s, everyday becomes a complete cycle. When they get into their 90s, they start going backward, saying, “I was just 90” when referring to the previous year. Following their 90s and over the centennial, they become a kid again, saying, “I am 100-and-a-half” when asked how old they are.

The accumulation of changes in human life is constant. People should always be prepared to change. No need to be afraid of it. Without change, there is neither growth nor hope. People constantly put new and dynamic things in their life in order to live on the edge.

Growing old is inevitable, but staying young is not impossible, depending on the energetic attitude toward sustainable endeavors to move forward without ceasing, even after all the years. Worrying about past experiences will not help people’s present and future in any way. To avoid taking guilt trips, they should accept them for what they are and try to forget about them.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths people take, but by the moments that take their breath away. They can ignore non-essential numbers like age, sleeping length, walking step, weight and height. Medical doctors would worry about them.

During the entire lifespan people should cherish their health. If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what they can improve, get help. People can keep learning as long as they are healthy, lest they let their age fool them.

Human life is composed of an eternal series of todays. Right now is a person’s turn in the barrel under the altering circumstances with the passage of time. Everyone is growing and aging in parallel with their emerging background circumstances on a daily basis. They should discipline themselves, for a raison d’etre as an active senior, to meditate and exercise at certain times each day to experience the joys of life in any adversities even in the twilight years of their golden life span.

The writer is an ombudsman columnist to The Korea Times in Seoul. Reach him at kexim2@unitel.co.kr.