Accepting Aging

What is aging?

Why do all life forms age and die? For that matter what is life?

Tough questions.

Perhaps, starting with the last question is best.

Life appears to be a code that operates in contradiction to the randomness and reactivity of the rest of the universe. Most life forms that we are familiar with have a boundary—a cell membrane— that contains all the other structures and functions of the cell including its code for life in the form of its genes. The cell membrane defines the cell from the rest of the world.

Life also has consciousness, or self-awareness, and stored knowledge on how to protect and propagate itself. It appears the sole purpose of life is to protect and propagate the code of life.

Within the code of life—the genome—are stages, some considered growth and developmental phases of aging and others degenerative and senescent phases of aging. In addition, expression of the genome is altered by life’s experiences (epigenetic changes).

Threat-related distress introduces epigenetic changes that accelerate degeneration and senescence. Chronic threats and associated distress are cumulative and compound across a lifetime at an epigenetic and a genetic level.

So, is that why all life forms age? Perhaps life’s wear and tear over time, and eventual demise, is all aging is?

Yet, there are programs within life forms for death—literally called programmed cell death—through which deteriorating cells are deconstructed, destroyed, and sacrificed to be recycled into new cells, establishing renewed vitality and new life. It appears that billions of years of biologic evolution has defined at a cellular level that aging and altruistic death and subsequent renewal and rebirth are a better strategy for sustaining a healthy genetic code than immortality.

We age and eventually die for the health and longevity of the code, and life’s chronic threats and distress accelerate this process.

Threats, illness, disease, disability, pain, and suffering are unavoidable and inevitable parts of life. The skill of life is learning to avoid threat, to avoid creating threat within the world, and to seek safety. This leads to health, happiness, and longevity, but not immortality. The art of life is learning to let go, to ease into the final dissolution process and eventually die for the health, happiness, and longevity of the code.

To hang on is to be dragged. – Ancient Proverb.

There are many things to pass along during the later phases of life. However, this is a time for mentoring not conquering, a time for teaching not leading, a time for humility not conceit, and a time for accepting and not denying our deterioration and our mortality.

There is purpose in all the phases of aging, life's purpose—to protect and propagate the genetic code—and to fulfill this purpose, sacrifice is a requirement.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. — Ecclesiastes 3:1-8