Como Envejecer

How to grow old without dying in the attempt
Fernández Tosar, Jorgelina
ISLV (Instituto Suprior Lenguas Vivas)

How to grow old without dying in the attempt
The human being has always tried to extend life and to postpone the unstoppable aging process as well as death. It is a global idea in human men’s mind to resist the biological change/chain. People have constantly lived searching for away of looking young, pretty and healthy. It would be enough to refer to the masterpiece of the brilliant Irish writer, Oscar Wilde; “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” where he describes what a man is able to do in order to avoid aging. To be young is only a part of existence. The short story, “How to grow old” written by Bertrard Russel, conceals the idea that somebody can live the last part of his /her life happily and indulging in great moments. But, What role does experience play in life? Is it more important to be an experienced person or to look young?
The functional, cellular, and molecular process of aging is universal, irreversible, continuous, intrinsic and heterogeneous. It is a fact that “medical science is doing all it can to extend human life and is succeeding brilliantly”(Alexander, 1968 p.56) Moreover; scientists are working in nuclear medicine which means that it is overcoming plastic surgery indeed. Society lives longer because of environmental factors, our way of living is constantly improving; lifestyle, eating habits, physical exercise and many other things. Still, the contemporary mandate focuses on how to look great, desirable, slim and fit, instead ofattaching importance to the way we feel as time goes by.
Nevertheless, the improvement of science is helping on the fact that anyone, who can afford the treatment, will have the opportunity of making any physical change. Even though this sounds positive, in most of the cases, it does not contribute to the enriching process humans need to undergo to enrich themselves. Plastic surgery could probably givesatisfaction to people for a little while but there’s no way that it could continue forever; and the big philosophical question is still unanswered. So, at this point we can affirm that humans reach the degradation that capitalism offers. This means that any physical change is a kind of capitalist quick way out, a person pays for what he/she thinks will make her happy but, at the same time ithides the fact that undergoing the process of living means sharing with others our personal experiences. Moreover, the core of the sense of life is to live in society by exchanging with others: feelings, ideas, inventions, history, stories , moments, experiences and so on. The great British writer, Bertrand Russel stated: “I do not believe that she ever had time to notice that she was growing old,”referring to his maternal grandmother, and continued saying: “This, I think, is the proper recipe for remaining young. If you have wide and keen interests and activities in which you can still be effective, you will have no reason to think about the merely statistical fact of number of years you have already lived …” (Sachs, 1980 p. 67). It is possible to reflect upon by asking: what is the recipeto feel young?
In some societies, “experience” and “knowledge” have been overestimated through human history, the wizards were valuable in almost every culture – from Indigenous to Chinese – meaning that the most knowledgeable was the eldest was. And so, it seemes to be the ideal stage of life and the wisdom of the culture passed on from generation to generation to young people by telling themstories, showing them recipes for doing something the way they like to; but they also showed their youngers the bases of respect and principles they considered important.
In point of fact, oriental cultures through the years consider that old people are those who have the experience of living and so the whole society takes care of them and worth them like the treasure of the community....