Is it hard-wired into people that they don't think they'll ever get old?

[raccoon]

I know I didn't. When I was a teenager, I didn't think I'd ever be 65. Or even 40.

It happened to my grandparents, and my parents, but it will never happen to me. That's what I thought.

[ima_sinnic]

1. yeah, I thought so into my 40s

I didn't see anything really "old" happening. But around age 48 everything seemed to suddenly go to hell all at once.

[meegbear]

2. It's your frame of mind ...

I know someone who said he thought he'd be dead by 25; booze, drugs, looking for fights. He's 53 and quite the mellow guy now.

[notesdev]

12. Never thought I'd maket it to 30

so I lived that way...

then one day I woke up and I was 30 years old

not long after, I started to plan to live a long life

I can't for the life of me imagine how the heck I managed to make it out of my 20s in one piece!

[Why Syzygy]

3. Right?

I didn't even know it happened until younger people started treating me like an old person. So, it's more about the mirror in some cases. Notwithstanding, aches and pains.

It's obvious many young people believe it is "optional".

[ThomWV]

4. Well, I'm right about in mid-process (62)

Nah, you don't see it coming. However it doesn't just hit you like a brick in the head, it sneaks up quickly. You start aching in your body long before you start aging in your head. Its when the two catch up to each other that you realize its happening to you. Oh, and when the beard turns white and you start to really want a Harley Davidson, those are hints too.

[BirminghamExaminer]

5. No

It's not hardwired into people to think they won't get old. There's an evolutionary incentive to procreate and leave one's DNA behind. To do that most effectively, it's best to do it at an advantageous age ...that is among young people who have the best chances of producing offspring who will go on to also produce offspring. So in fact, it's hardwired into us to think we WILL get old and so we should have as much sex as often and soon as possible.

[azmouse]

6. The problem with getting older is that the outside doesn't match the inside.

I don't feel any different than I did when I was a kid... but I'm a kid no longer.

At 47 it's still hard to believe that I'll look or feel any different in 20 years. I guess it's denial.

[Arkansas Granny]

9. I think that's most of it. My outside at 62 is much older than my inside.

[slampoet]

7. People never think they will become Disabled either,

Yet everyone who lives long enough will become disabled in some way.

That's a pretty universal fact.


However does our transportation system reflect this? HELL NO.

I consider our lack of decent transportation and the fact that we MAKE people drive until they are dangerous enough to kill someone to be one of the greatest SLURS against the disabled and elderly and the poor and the young.

[John Q. Citizen]

8. We used to say I don't care if i never grow old

Gonna flame gonna burn gonna take one quick turn
and go out like James Dean.

Well we don't say that any more 'cause it's too late to die young
So we sit around the table long after supper and the good wine

Singing Hey hey, hey hey, who woulda thunk it?
Hey hey, hey hey, who woulda thunk it? - Greg Brown

[ipfilter]

10. There have been a few events that make me reflect on how

short life really is. The first was when I noticed teenagers and 20 somethings called me "sir". My son is ten and I reflect on the things I did at his age and realize it was both a long time ago and not so long ago. I've worn a beard for several years. One day I shaved it on a whim and was shocked to see how much my face had aged right before my very eyes. I let the beard grow back. :)

[boobooday]

11. I just didn't think it would happen today.

It is unimaginable when you are young, probably for a reason. Now I am growing in the gray, and feeling alright about it. I'm kind of grooving on the whole "Bride of Frankenstein" look that is emerging.

[BirminghamExaminer]

13. Invisible

You become invisible as you get older. I've noticed that a lot and have reflected back to when I was young (in my teens and twenties and even to some slighter extent in my 30s) and realize I did the same thing. I know it's natural but that doesn't make it any less annoying.

When you get really old I hear, you become visible again but in a different way.

[boobooday]

16. Or maybe we just thought everyone was looking at us when we were young

So bittersweet!

I teach college students so I get a dose of reality every day.

[raccoon]

22. I've noticed that too. nt

[vadawg]

14. 7 hours of shovelling snow yesterday brought it home to me

I AM GETTING OLD......

[ThomWV]

19. Next year it will only take 4 hours of shoveling to bring the point home

Inbetween you'll forget.

[AngryAmish]

15. Yes.

Our brains work in prescribed ways. We think we know and perceive everything when in fact we can see well only in front of us in a small area, have limited peripheral vision, can't see behind us, limited hearing and smell.

We live in a world which is mostly imagined by what is commonly known as consciousness.

Consciousness studies is fascinating - but our brains fool us. One of the problems is imagining that we are the center of the universe and how we feel at any given moment is the way the world is for the rest of the world. When young we feel young and invincible.

Bottom line: we think we are going to live forever because it is the way our brains work.

[NNN0LHI]

17. Did you ever hear someone say, "Well, we aren't going to live forever", before?

You may have said it yourself? I have.

Well when someone says that they are never thinking that about themselves. They are talking about everyone else. But not themselves. We all tend to think we are going to live forever.

Its one of those inconvenient truths we don't like to admit to ourselves. That's just the way it works.

Don

[Le Taz Hot]

18. I like what George Burns said about it all:

"If I knew I was going to live this long I'd have taken better care of myself."

[melm00se]

20. young people

don't have the life experience necessary to face their own mortality.

Odds are that until your 20's or so, it is unlikely that you will be faced with the death of a close friend or family member. Once you begin to see people you care about dying your viewpoint changes rather quickly

[L. Coyote]

21. No, it just takes too damn long, so we hardly notice it happening.

And then when it has happened finally, we bitch and moan about how that sure went fast!

[NV Whino]

23. My mind stopped at 35

The body kept on going. :(

[Libertyfirst]

24. Old age is vastly overrated.

[renate]

25. memories are why it's hard for me to believe it

I can still remember being in grade school and high school... certain parts of those years I remember really well, and they seem really recent--my college years even more so.

It's weird to look at my kids and remember what my life was like when I was their age. Hard to believe that what I'm remembering happened quite a long time ago... it really doesn't feel that way.

So that's why being in my forties feels kind of like :wtf: I was a kid just a few years ago.