"Successful" Aging

 It's really about successful living -- at every age and stage.

People who solve the challenges of their lives, succeed at every age and difficulty -- while those who only depend on others to solve all their problems for them, are at the mercy of the "health care" system, and other professionals who charge handsomely for their services -- and advice, whether they in fact, help or not.

"Aging" is really all the failed adaptations coming home to haunt them -- the morbid obesity, the improper diet for one's own constitution, addictions and compulsions, attracting toxic people, and of course, the utter dependency on others to do all their thinking (and ultimately their personal hygiene) for them.

Everyone in a failed circumstances, has made some irrevocable decision that dooms them in that way.  The most common, is a person living in a multistory house they have to go up and down every day -- until they fall and break their hip.  They continue to live there because they want to die in the home they grew up in -- rather than move into a modern ADA provisioned studio -- that mollifies those handicaps.

It should be obvious by now that aging is greatly dependent on the individual choices people make -- some more wisely and successfully than others.  The first thing people have to do when they "retire," is to get into the best shape and health they've ever been -- because the rest of their lives (and activities) depend on that, and failing to do that, impacts everything else they do negatively -- until their lives become only worse, and never getting better, which is what defines life and vitality -- and not just dying a little more each day, and dragging as many into the grave with them as possible, because they've never successfully solved the problem of being/standing alone.

The Problems of the "Old"

The older I get, the more convinced I am, that the problems of aging, are simply the problems of living, and the failure to respond effectively to those challenges.  The accumulated failures, as well as successes, is what ages people.  If we really solve the problems of our living, then there is no aging -- but if we fail to solve them, then failure is our result.  That is why most people's exercises are not effective against aging and deterioration; their exercises are not effective -- and not that exercise per se, fails to prevent against that deterioration.  One can discover, or create exercises, that do in fact address those problems of aging -- particularly notable at the extremities/organs of the head, hands and feet.

If those organs don't age, the body doesn't age.  And the way to do that, is to optimize the circulation to the extremities, as the highest priority -- and everything else is incidental and supportive.  A few people notice that difference -- but those are the people that matter.  The rest are the typical "victims" of life -- feeling no control over their own lives.  Nothing ever seems to work out for them.  

They are the problems of one's individual past -- coming home to haunt them.

So that is what one's life is for -- to solve all these problems and challenges -- as they happen in one's life.  But most people never solve these problems but instead deny that there is a problem -- and then eventually, they overwhelm them.  Instead of solving these problems, they ask or demand that other people solve them for them -- and think then, that it is done -- especially the problems of human relationships and communications.

Among the old people, there is a tremendous problem of loneliness that underlie many of their difficulties -- that they do not confront while they are young, and so it becomes an immense problem for them as they age -- which is the maturing of that problem.  They don't know how to make friends -- really, or just be friendly with people.  Instead, they become demanding -- relying on guilt and manipulation (deception) to get their way -- until the only people left, are those who know what they are all about, and have seen their act and so they are powerless against.  Many just shut themselves off from life -- by never venturing out again.  Instead, they live among the things they hoard -- until one day they are buried by it.  These are not the problems of age, as they are of adjustment -- and that is how we live our lives.
 
So it is a problem of self-management, or a lack thereof, that they've failed to develop sometime in their lives -- because they never confronted any of their problems, and what they have to do to make them better.

They think only the government, or somebody else, can make them better -- and not that they can, or should, do these things for themselves -- including their health.  That is the essential great challenge of these times.  Is health what each individual controls, or is that what government does?  How one answers that question, determines the course of the rest of their lives.

Few believe that is possible.  So one doesn't have to make up these problems like whether we should genetically enhance food (life) -- and all these other small causes that miss the big picture, which is life on the individual level of responsibility and how we actually live (manifest) it.  Many of these old folks are suckers for these movements -- thinking that is what will keep them alive -- but those concerns are meaningless unless they actualize the current possibilities -- of already living the fullest and healthiest life already possible.

Otherwise, it is just another meaningless demand for "More," without any idea of what they will do with it -- just as they have always lived their lives.  And that is their problem.

The Key to Life is Being Healthy

Many people confuse young as "healthy," and old as "dying," when that is not necessarily true.  One can be "unhealthy" at any age -- and healthy at any age as well, which doesn't necessarily mean one will live forever.  In fact, the best way to ensure that one will not be exposed to any risks that might jeopardize their life (and health), is to lock them up so that they will never ride in a car, ride a bike, or swim in the ocean -- which is to eliminate the risks of living a life of experiences -- in favor of just being kept safely, so one will live as long as possible -- without any experiences or participation in what most would regard as a meaningful and rich existence.

So when one of the original founders of the American Experience and culture said, "Give me liberty or give me death," he is in effect remarking, that only a life in freedom (to live and experience a full life), is worth living -- and not just living without that enrichment and engagement.  Thus, people frequently remark when one has met a premature death, "that they died doing what they loved doing," implying that they died happily, living the life they wanted to live -- and died that way also.  That is a fact of life, and nothing will guarantee that a specific individual's life will go on forever, no matter what precautions one takes, how much life or medical insurance one has -- because that is the very nature of that which is living -- that it also will die.

Otherwise, there is no "life," to that which can never die.  It always was, and always will be -- unchanging -- neither getting better or worse, but always staying the same no matter what.  Life is not like that -- at least individual lives are not like that -- and those changes individually, cause all of life to change as well, and so it matters if we individually get better or worse.

Getting worse, is actually the process of cutting oneself off from the rest of life -- so one no longer effectively participates, or engages life with any others.  They are isolated in their little shells and cocoons -- in order to remain completely "safe."  Becoming unhealthy and "disabled," also keeps one safe in this way -- of being excused from full participation, so that one "cannot" -- because of some convenient excuse -- that one is not in the condition to...

That doesn't mean that one has to take up skydiving or scuba diving -- to live fully, unless those fascinations particularly appeal to one, and they will not feel fulfilled until they have checked those experiences off their "to do" lists -- before they die.  There are plenty of others to engage in, and if nothing still appeals, there is always the search further, as an activity in itself.  If that quest is fruitful, then it becomes a viable alternative for where the rest of life can also go -- if it indeed makes compelling good sense to do so.  That is the value of individual choice and action -- that it creates a precedence for where the rest of life may go -- which none may have even thought about before.

Of course, one will never do so, if one is dependent on the approval and applause of every one else to guide them on what that might be -- because obviously, if the others knew, or appreciated it, they would be there doing it first.  So those paths, will be well-trodden -- and crowded, but for those who rely on the crowds to lead them where to go -- they will obviously not be the first there -- though they may consume their entire lives thinking to get there.

If one is not sure where one is heading, the best they can do, is to be as healthy and fit for whatever comes along -- so they are prepared to go where they have to, and not so their condition excuses them -- from everr having to rise to any challenges ever again.  That would be dying to living, and all the disastrous consequences that follow.  Rather than our fates being inevitable, for most, it is the choices and actions we take, that make our lives the way it is.

One has to choose health at the very beginning, and not at the end, when it is already too late to make any difference.  That is the most important lesson one should teach the young -- as well as the old, and not that the old should just give up already and die -- because that dying, may consume entire lives lived that way.  But the person who is healthy, makes all the right choices -- because they can, and that's what they have to do -- to manifest that health.  The sick person will not choose health, but will choose their sickness -- and that is what makes them sick.

A Crisis of Confidence

A decision like this, anywhere else in the world, would be a slam-dunk.

The fact that it is just the beginning for more contentious and costly discussions/litigation, is testament to the total failure of self-government in Hawaii -- where nothing can ever make common sense anymore.

There is nothing inherently natural about the Natatorium that would require an "environmental impact study," to restore it to its natural condition as a beach.  Nature has already put in her vote in tearing it down piece by piece, bit by bit -- and would be the same if restored, just as that $10 M a decade ago to restore just the facade, was money flushed into the ocean.

It's four times the cost -- without considering future maintenance costs, which it undoubtedly will require -- and then all the Friends of the Natatorium will have passed on by then, leaving the children of Hawaii to pay for a legacy of just preserving the status quo and the past out of habit and conditioning (their indoctrination).

Surely there must be other good uses for the money -- maybe even building a permanent homeless shelter -- so that any memorial is a living testament to those who sacrificed their lives to build a better society -- and not just crumbling shells of buildings to remind them of the futility of all efforts.

Choosing Change

Contrary to what the mass media would have us believe, the outcome and quality of our lives has less to do with what we all must do and think, than it does the individual choices every person makes for themselves alone.  So we don't have to convince everybody else of the rightness of any action, before we ourselves choose to follow that path -- and accept those consequences, good or bad.  Life really is that simple -- if we allow it for ourselves.  Imposing that choice on everybody else, is unnecessary -- even if it were possible.

A healthy person would assume that it is the impulse and motivation of every individual to become better, healthier and happier -- but if one looks around at the problems many create for themselves, those are not the choices they make for themselves -- even thinking that the objective in life and society, is to make things worse, unhealthier, more miserable for everybody else -- in learning the wrong things -- and then determining, never to change again.

That is always the fatal mistake from which there is no reversal and recovery, because one has decided that instead of adapting and changing to the world, the world henceforth, must now adapt and change to them -- and in this way, many people get cut off from the flow of life, choosing as they have, to become isolated pools of their own existence, living in their own worlds of their memories, thoughts and fantasies of how things must be -- forevermore.

But life is not like that.  Life is change, people come and go, ideas rise and fall -- and if one can move with it, it is quite a ride, until choosing not to change anymore -- so then, all of life, passes one by.  That is the choice, and not that one has to choose to change.

That is the difference between thought and awareness -- the latter which is reading life directly, as it is happening, while the former is only an idea of what was happening at a particular time, which is obviously, not the present time or situation.  It may not even be a comparable situation -- but an entirely different matter altogether.  Thus, one declares that all apples and oranges are cherries, and devotes the rest of their lives to convincing everybody else of that fact -- and wondering why their efforts are not appreciated correctly.

That causes a lot of people to spend the rest of their days in bitterness and resentment -- never being properly appreciated, and rewarded -- and thus they feel owed, and entitled to whatever they can get.  That becomes their whole world of justice.  Nothing will rectify the feeling that everybody else lives their lives only for their own exclusive benefit -- so they should not have to do anything for themselves anymore, ever again -- including what is necessary to keep themselves healthy, happy and improving.

For such people, life seems hopeless -- and only getting worse.  Their own lives, and the mass media, tells them that is so.  "The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer," and not that individuals make better choices that make their lives better -- and that continues as long as they do.