We read Stephen Johnson's "Extra Life" and we watched a PBS show that featured him and the ideas that have made living longer more possible and more common. I don't think I have been as conscious of age at any earlier time in my life, except maybe as a teen. Between age 10 and 20, there are many steps, goals and possibilities that are related to being old enough.
I think that once a person is older than 70, no one is going to think of them as young. But in that period of life, it seems that age again becomes important. I have read some about psychological tendencies at 70 and later, so when I read of Franz Schubert dying at age 31 and Mozart at 45, I wonder what the world would have seen from them if they had lived to 70 or 80.
People often remark that "death and taxes" are inevitable but once we reach the age of 70 or 80, we become aware of the possibility of dying at nearly any time. I have found that facing death as death is very helpful. It eliminates basic fears. Of course, there is the suspense of when something might be fatal or lethal. Is this the moment when we die?
We seem to have the idea these days that death is associated with being "old" but it doesn't take much looking to see that in earlier times, childhood was riddled with deaths. Sometimes, I read that current life expectancy is not too different from earlier times, with the exception of surviving childhood.
I have deliberately tried to think and use the words "death" and "dying" instead of euphemisms. I realize that many people have wondered what is the use of being born if things are just going to end in death. Since we have a natural tendency to keep alive and avoid death, and since the modern world and modern life are full of scary and attention-getting reports of floods, fires, tornadoes, wars and other life-ending events, much of our news and fiction is about avoiding the bad guys (and girls!) who kill and threaten to kill. If we are able to accept the possibility of death, many fears can be erased.
Most people I have heard mention death either focus on the ages of death of their parents or on life expectancy. Despite the fact that we came from our parents, we may still lead very different lives from theirs. Life expectancy is an average and just about nobody is average.
