A magazine article catches my eye, “Amortality: why acting your age is a thing of the past”. Just click on the link and you can read the whole thing.
Once upon a time, life had a fairly predetermined trajectory – you are born, you work until you grow too frail, then you die. For most of the world, this is still the case. For many of my ilk, however there are a range of lifestyle choices, and sufficient motivation to maintain the range of options open to us for as long as we can. The fitter and healthier we are the longer we can keep these options open.
There seems to be a fine line however, between an obsessive striving to “stay young” and aging gracefully. The time of diminishment inevitably arrives as does our mortality. In my early sixties, I’m fit enough for a range of physical activities, but you won’t find me playing a full footy match or running a marathon. I’ve got a bush walk or two in mind for this week and some house maintenance that will stretch my physicality.
I guess it comes to motivation and the swing between what the spiritual abbas and amas of the desert called “accidie” (a listless, gormless submission to circumstances) and anxiety (a fearful, faithless obsession with keeping the demons at bay). Somewhere in the tension is an alert and relaxed attentiveness that is mental, spiritual and somatic.
If I strive, it is to be in that place.
Wondering Pilgrim 