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I don't think you qualify for this thread. You just got out of your 30s, you won't be 65 until a quarter of century later. You are closer to you 20s than your 60s and elderly years.
You are not remotely old. But you older than me, 29. l
We were taking the scenic route home from brunch today. We passed a house I remembered from a garage sale some months ago. A young couple had just finished their medical studies at Stanford and were selling all their books and household goods. They had jobs waiting for them back East. At the time I congratulated them on this exciting and milestone event but I remember feeling a little deflated inside. Their lives were just beginning and ours are about to end.
Do you ever feel this way?
Envy can apply to something they have and you cannot have.
But that's not the case here - they have their one shot at life, and so did you. Plus you still have life left - so get on with it.
I don't think you qualify for this thread. You just got out of your 30s, you won't be 65 until a quarter of century later. You are closer to you 20s than your 60s and elderly years.
You are not remotely old. But you older than me, 29. l
I can't imagine why anyone who is 29, or 41, would have the slightest interest in reading the thoughts, positive or negative, of people whose lives are essentially over.
Sure, some of us are smart; some have had interesting lives full of accomplishments, but how relevant are they to people who are still years from peak performance, success, and wealth? How can younger people find anything interesting in often sad and maudlin recollections of those who are largely finished?
There's no doubt that many of us participate in activities involving people of different age groups. I talk with people thirty, forty, or even fifty years younger than I, but we don't talk about aging—Yuck! We talk about gold mining or wilderness rambles or books of interest, topics that that have nothing to do with age. There's no advantage in trying to become elderly earlier than necessary. My advice is to enjoy yourselves in what is the most vibrant period of life. You won't be able to do as much in thirty or forty years as you can do today.
I can't imagine why anyone who is 29, or 41, would have the slightest interest in reading the thoughts, positive or negative, of people whose lives are essentially over.
There's no doubt that many of us participate in activities involving people of different age groups. I talk with people thirty, forty, or even fifty years younger than I, but we don't talk about aging—Yuck! We talk about gold mining or wilderness rambles or books of interest, topics that that have nothing to do with age. There's no advantage in trying to become elderly earlier than necessary. My advice is to enjoy yourselves in what is the most vibrant period of life. You won't be able to do as much in thirty or forty years as you can do today.
Am I only one who thinks what you wrote is a complete paradox?
How can you say someone's life is essentially over when they are still enjoying it and doing interesting things?
Sure, I can understand your saying that if you are talking about a 95-year-old in an assisted living facility (although I think getting a sense of history from someone who actually lived it would be very interesting to some young people, assuming the person's mind is still sharp), but to say that about your average 60-80 year old? There are many in that age group whose lives are far from "essentially over"!
I can't imagine why anyone who is 29, or 41, would have the slightest interest in reading the thoughts, positive or negative, of people whose lives are essentially over.
Sure, some of us are smart; some have had interesting lives full of accomplishments, but how relevant are they to people who are still years from peak performance, success, and wealth?
We're exhorted to begin retirement planning while still in our teens. Being just a few years older than Stan4, I'm perhaps from the last generation which could graduate from college without debt, immediately find professional employment and start saving aggressively. Possibly the fresh med-school graduates mentioned at the beginning of this thread have already started Roth-IRAs. Now advance by "only" another 20 years from their current position. Assuming a modicum of planning, decent luck and avoidance of life's bitter vicissitudes, these now middle-aged doctors have long ago paid off their various debts, have low (or not so low) 7-figure portfolios, and may be approaching burn-out in their profession. Is it not then perfectly natural to be thinking about retirement? For some, the pinnacle of performance and wealth, is precisely the life-stage for retirement.
Self-Deception I: Rationalization
Human beings are not rational, but rationalizing animals.
Rationalization is the use of feeble but seemingly plausible arguments either to justify something that is difficult to accept or to make it seem ‘not so bad after all'.
In the case of Aesop's fox, the cognitive dissonance arises from the cognitions ‘I am an agile and nimble fox' and ‘I can't reach the grapes on the branch', and the rationalization, which is a form of sour grapes, is ‘I am sure the grapes are sour'.
Are you referring to rationalization of the inevitability of death? I don't want to suffer (who would?), but I'm not worried about death itself. When it comes, it's a natural part of life. Today's living creatures must give way to new living creatures because there's a finite amount of room on this planet.
I'm enjoying my life as much as possible now. That's the rational response to knowing that death is inevitable. Why worry about something that's outside of my control? Or fear it?
It took me a long time to get what little wisdom I've acquired. It wouldn't appeal to me at all to go back in time to an age when all of that wisdom was beyond my grasp, simply to be (theoretically) more distant from death.
As I reread the thread I began to wonder/suspect that we are seeing that younger couple through the prism of our own lives. Some were that young couple with the resources and education to want to have the good life while working and in retirement. They realize they have made it though the various stages of life and events to their current age in good standing and continuing their life of prosperity.
Others see that couple starting out with resources they never had or things didn't work out the way they had hoped.
That young couple would probably see us all very differently. Some of us they would not want to be at our age and others they hope to be. I guess it is all a matter of perspective for both the old and young.
We were taking the scenic route home from brunch today. We passed a house I remembered from a garage sale some months ago. A young couple had just finished their medical studies at Stanford and were selling all their books and household goods. They had jobs waiting for them back East. At the time I congratulated them on this exciting and milestone event but I remember feeling a little deflated inside. Their lives were just beginning and ours are about to end.
I dont envy them because they are in school and are getting saddled with student loan loan debt
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