There seems to be some belief that if I have a postive attitude, I won't get old and wind down. If an optimistic outlook seems good, a read of "Bright-sided" by Barbara Ehrenrich might help develop a different perspective. Personally, I do think there is a positive angle to most situations. After a death, for instance, people sometimes think that the deceased may be at peace now.
But postive angles or not, there are losses, there is pain and there is suffering. A typical idea is that aging will bring pain, suffering and decline: less pep, less sight and hearing, less sleep. A related idea, stressed by the Buddha, is that pain may be inescapable but much of the suffering connected to old age, sickness and death comes from squirming and fretting and feeling cheated or violated.
I have been passed 60 years of age for about 25% of my life and of course, it is the most recent period. I have read that William James, a pioneer of American psychology, figured that one's consciousness covered a time of about 17 seconds. That might be the "short present" but the times, they are a-changing (as they always are), and I figure that the current times might be said to be the last 10 years. Ten years seems long enough to capture the current fashions in dress, food, worries, achievements, sports, etc. Because of science, entrepreneurship, marketing, inventions, inter-cultural comparisons and contrasts and mixes, "current times" may be shorter than they were.
Swedish Professor Hans Rosling and his son and daughter have worked hard at bringing attention to out-dated ideas and education that needs updating. Their little book, "Factfulness", stresses that many older people retain information given to them by their teachers but that by now, the world, its conditions and its people have changed.
One of many things that has changed and is changing is advanced human age. More people are living longer:
"People 90 and older now comprise 4.7 percent of the older population (age 65 and older), as compared with only 2.8 percent in 1980. By 2050, this share is likely to reach 10 percent." [Note: the portion has more than doubled]
Besides, more people over 60 and over 70 and over 80 are more vital than such people used to be. They are more alive and more lively.
Depending on how I have lived my life and what I do with my body and diet now, I personally may be in no shape to live to 90 and beyond, but many people are. Some who do are quite surprised at what life at older ages has become. Some are very happy, the happiest they have been at any time.
