- Browse products
- Weight Loss
- Supplements
- Men's
- Women's
- Nutritional
- Anti Aging
- Herbalife
Purchase
health, herbalife products
online
Publisher Frances Lear said, “I can sit next to a
man who has on his other side a gorgeous twenty-five-year-old, and he’ll
talk to me, because I’m much more interesting.”
Why shouldn't she be more interesting? Think back to when you were forty
years younger. Remember what you thought was important and how you spent
your time. Does it seem a little immature now? Would you want to trade your
maturity now for your maturity then?
Would you rather have lunch with Jennifer Lopez or Oprah? Brad Pitt or
Richard Gere? Most people find Oprah and Gere more interesting because they
have more live experience and more to say.
Consider an analogy with computers. Thirty years ago you could do things a
little faster (megahertz) but your hard drive had far less information and
far fewer programs. Now you have a wealth of information and programs in
your hard drive. Would you want to trade speed for hard drive data and
programs?
Of course getting better with age doesn’t happen automatically. As employers
say, you can have thirty years of experience or one year of experience
thirty times. But if you are continually learning and growing, you have paid
the price of admission and are indeed getting better with age.
Learning can come from taking classes, reading books, intelligent
conversation, some radio or television programs, role models, or pursuing
special interests. Even pastimes like crossword puzzles and playing bridge
keep our memories and minds sharp. If we decide we value lifelong learning,
our brains seek opportunities to learn and grow just as a hungry person sees
food everywhere. If we stop learning, we are telling ourselves to put our
seats and trays in their upright position to prepare for our final descent.
Growth isn’t limited to intellectual learning. It also involves increased
maturity. It means having more perspective on problems, being more accepting
of others, and being slower to anger or criticize.
In the presidential debate when Ronald Reagan was asked about his age, he
quipped, “I won’t hold my opponent’s lack of experience against him.” The
remark helped people appreciate the advantages of his age and helped him win
the election.
Better with age is sometimes used as a hollow phrase. It can, however, be
very true. Not only do many people get better with time, in surveys older
people report being happier than younger people.
Further, advances in healthcare are helping us function younger at
chronologically older and older ages. Disability rates have declined 1-2% a
year since the government started collecting data in 1982. Dentures used to
be common by age 60 and are now rare at any age for people who have had good
dental care. Tiny digital hearing aids give much improved sound. Lasik and
laser surgery to correct visual problems has become commonplace. Finally, we
know a lot more about how to care for our health and have far more resources
than even a decade ago.
As the Beatles put it musically, “I’ve got to admit it’s getting better–It’s
getting better all the time.” Or, as Robert Browning put it, “Grow old along
with me! The best is yet to be. The last of life, for which the first was
made.”