Image by S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay
Few of us want to die young. Many of us don’t. But I am beginning to wonder lately, due to some fascinating books I’ve been reading, if living longer is necessarily what I really want. And not just because of the cosmetic changes or the ubiquitous social disapproval that come with aging. But more because I’m beginning to have an appreciation for the seasons of life and I’ve developed a healthy respect for endings.
The flurry of chronic diseases that affect most aging Americans makes me wonder if there is a reason Mother Nature does this to us. According to alz.org, there are an estimated 6.5 million people living with alzheimer’s in the United States. It’s a devastating condition that robs not only the sufferer but also their friends and family of the joy of life. Some of those with dementia become combative, highly irritable, or plagued by hallucinations. No one should have to live that way.
Then there are the wide variety of cancers as well as neuromuscular, cardiac, and autoimmune disorders that worsen (or develop) as people age. Modern medicine can treat most of these problems but usually not adequately. Sure, people are alive. But what good is it, after a certain point, if you’re always in pain. If you don’t know who or where you are. If all you do is move from the bed to the toilet to the TV.
The problem is that if you’re not aging well there comes a point of no return. When you’ve slipped past the gates of dementia into a life of nearly complete oblivion. Or you progress to the point you need help to get to the toilet or dress yourself. Your economic situation erodes and you can no longer work. Once you reach any of these milestones (and these are just some of the possibilities), you can no longer change your destiny. Even if you could change your deeply ingrained ways. There are simply no more chances.
Yeah, I know: I sound like a huge downer about all this. The truth hurts sometimes. And certainly there are people who live careful lives (or just get lucky) and manage to age well. They live, comfortably, on their own until their last breaths. Never needing family or friends to intervene. But even for folks like that there is still a simple fact that we all too often ignore: we’re not meant to live forever. That much we know for sure. And despite all the new science aimed at interrupting aging at the cellular level (and all the other levels), that’s not going to change.
One book that I read, Lifespan: Why We Age—And Why We Don’t Have To, (here) mentioned that creating new health systems and educating the public to take advantage of them would be necessary to fully implement the promises science has to offer. The author, David Sinclair, Ph.D., explained that such changes could be a long time in coming, however, because those who are older already have a stranglehold on lawmaking and public policy. We’re still, according to him, stuck under an old guard despite the blossoming of technology and science. His work, to extend and improve the quality of human life, could lead to people serving in legislative roles for many more years than they already do. That very thing, according to Sinclair, jeopardizes the adoption of new the technology and better laws regarding healthcare that he espouses.
Some people would argue that if people are living healthier, why not try to extend our lifespans? Who wouldn’t like that? Even if our society currently lacks the capacity to support longer living humans, as Sinclair explains, we could probably adjust quickly enough. It would all work out, right?
But one can’t make a statement like that without considering what that means for the world: a whole bunch more humans using resources, creating waste, and taking up space. That’s not how Mother Nature intended things. Death of some beings allows space and resources for other ones to survive. Humans living another fifty, or even twenty, more years could be devastating to the earth and everything else that lives on it.
I definitely want people to live healthier and happier lives. I believe in self-actualization for everyone. Joy, love, and vitality should bless us all. But does it have to come at such a high price to all the other living things on our planet? Ocean traveling ships create noise in the water that screws up the sonar whales and dolphins depend on to hunt. Housing developments and industrialization remove oxygen-making trees, plants, and acreage that wildlife need to survive. Air and water pollution poison everything that breathes, eats, and drinks.
Think about it: we’re the only species whose numbers are exploding while everything else is dwindling (with the exception of microbial life and pathogens like viruses). We ravage everything around us to insure our own survival and we’re good at it. But where does that logically lead? The way mankind is going we’ll be the only life form left on the earth. Does anyone want that? I know I don’t.
So, as strange or wrong as this may sound, I think it’s important that we simply die. Not that we need to cull periodically or espouse suicide. But it’s important that we humans do our part to maintain the planet. We’ve been greedy with almost all our world’s most precious assets. Can’t we at least respect it enough to relinquish space and resources when our natural time is up?