I turned 70 years old a few days ago. While I don’t feel old, take no prescription medications, eat a plant-based diet, work out at the gym, and walk 6 to 8 miles almost daily… there is still something about turning 70 that freaks me out. I feel like I’m about 40 on the inside, but that’s not what my birth certificate shows. It is just hard to believe that you were a kid or teenager and then, seemingly in an instant, are a senior citizen.
My son asked me how it feels differently being older as opposed to being younger. First of all, many things haven’t changed being 70 as compared to being 30 or 40—you were born in the same city at the same time to the same parents; you are about the same height and weight, have roughly the same psychological makeup, many of the same memories, the same DNA, etc. (This relates to what philosophers call the problem of personal identity. What, if anything, is it about you that endures over time? Are you more similar or different from who you used to be?)
As for the differences between being, say 30, as opposed to being 70, I’d classify them as follows.
The Physical – You are not as fast or strong as you used to be. My 12-year-old granddaughter can easily beat me in a race, and my 7 and 8-year-old grandchildren would give me a good run for my money. I can’t throw or hit or kick a ball as far or as high as I used to. I don’t hear or see or sleep as well.
The Cognitive – I have much more crystallized intelligence but much poorer fluid intelligence. Roughly, crystallized intelligence is the ability to use skills, knowledge, and experience; it is one’s lifetime of intellectual achievement, as demonstrated largely through one’s vocabulary and general knowledge. This improves somewhat with age, as experiences expand one’s knowledge.
Fluid intelligence or fluid reasoning is the capacity to reason and solve novel problems, independent of any knowledge from the past. It is the ability to analyze novel problems, identify patterns and relationships that underpin these problems and the extrapolation of these using logic. Fluid reasoning includes inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning. My fluid intelligence has decreased.
Let me give you an example. When my wife and I watch the TV game show Jeopardy, I realize I have a vast storehouse of knowledge after 70 years. But usually, I can’t answer the questions quickly enough, even when I know the answer. And I often find now that I have trouble accessing words or names that I know well. To take another example, when I taught college classes in my thirties, I had much less background information about my subject but could think quickly in class in a way I couldn’t do in my sixties.
The Psychological – Again, there are many similarities. I have many of the same character flaws—for instance, I’m still obsessive compulsive—but I’m still intellectually curious too. I hate to admit it, but much of our psychological tendencies seem hardwired. Not that we can’t change, but genes and environment wire our brains making drastic change difficult.
Summary -So I have declined intellectually somewhat, physically a lot, and psychologically I haven’t changed all that much. Nothing very profound here.
How You Are Viewed By Younger People – I sense that some younger people see me as old (in a negative way.) No doubt some of this is projection. Still, you become aware that others see you as older than you feel. You may be physically and intellectually vibrant, but your external appearance belies those facts. It is hard to get used to being older than most others you meet daily. But no sour grapes, that’s just (currently) part of the cycle of life and the elixer is to be, to use a cliche, young at heart.
The Real Difference – Life just looks different. You become increasingly aware of your mortality. You can easily imagine your kids and grandkids reading these lines, wondering if you knew the end was getting nearer. And the answer is yes. You know that much of your life is not on the horizon but behind you. Much of the journey is over. This thought fills you with pride in what you’ve achieved and sadness for what can never be. It is a strange thing to be human, and no words effectively communicate what it’s like. Here you are, one consciousness, seemingly destined to vanish. But then again, hopefully, others will take up where we left off and bring about a better future.
The Good News – You worry less about unimportant things like your appearance or what others think about you. (The old joke is that when I was 30, I worried what others thought about me; when I was 50, I quit worrying so much about what others thought about me; and when I was 70, I realized nobody was thinking about me anyway.)
Conclusion – How then should we feel about turning 70 or 80 or 90 or 100? Perhaps no one has written more eloquently about growing old than the great philosopher Bertrand Russell in his essay “How To Grow Old.”
The best way to overcome it [the fear of death]—so at least it seems to me—is to make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river: small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being. The man who, in old age, can see his life in this way, will not suffer from the fear of death, since the things he cares for will continue. And if, with the decay of vitality, weariness increases, the thought of rest will not be unwelcome. I should wish to die while still at work, knowing that others will carry on what I can no longer do and content in the thought that what was possible has been done.
Thank you for sharing these reflections. I’m 53 and have been going through a health issue over the last month that has almost complete sidelined me from any productivity. It’s been very challenging and has me thinking a lot about my future decrepitude. I should recover and get back to my fortunate life, but I know, realistically, that’s only temporary. (Unlike the indefinitely long-lived characters in my novel about the scientific end of aging that seems close.)
Anyway, at the risk of talking to a wall-less self who has merged with the good flow of the universe, your example and life are very meaningful to me. And I hardly even know you. But thank you nonetheless.
I guess I misunderstood the closing for this post. On reviewing it, I now conclude it was from Bertrand Russell. My bad, I guess. I am disappointed with my physical decline, sure. I am now more disappointed with the decline of that mass of neurons between my ears…especially NOW that I have expended more effort in using it. Everyone dies. Few are prepared for that. I think so. Not sad, just disappointed.
Wow….No truer words have been spoken
I am soon to turn 78 and agree with much of what John and Russell has said. Yes, I am made aware of my age in interactions with others. I was recently addressed as “sweetie”. While in very good health I realize I am slipping both physically and in short term memory. This has necessitated some difficult cutting back. I also have several things I want to accomplish and feel I am in a race to get them done. I have gone to bed thinking that tomorrow I will be one day closer. Despite this I am content that in the end I have made my contribution and birds will still be chirping, roses budding, and couples falling in love.
thanks for sharing your thoughts Joseph.
thanks, but just “off the top of my head.” I’m sure with more time I could have composed a better post.
definativly Russell; I couldn’t write that well.
thanks so much for your kind words Ed. Feel like a kid here, but must accept that I’m getting older.
Loud and hearty applause for a very well-written essay on aging! You really nailed it. From my lofty age of 75 years, I offer my congratulations, sonny. 😁
For me, the realization that I was an old man came on my 60th birthday. I wrote up my contemplations in this essay: https://www.erasmatazz.com/personal/self/sixty.html.
You and I experience aging in similar ways, but I emphasize different aspects of it. For me, the worst symptom of aging is the loss of vocabulary. I still have a huge vocabulary buried somewhere inside my wrinkled old brain, and the rare jewels of that vocabulary do come to the surface on occasion, but it seems that even simple, everyday terms elude me during conversations.
On the other hand, my ability to think big ideas has grown more powerful with age. Over the last ten years, I have often felt like a chicken hatching dinosaur eggs. I solved the problem of interactive storytelling with Le Morte d’Arthur; in the process, I had a profound realization about the true nature of storytelling. I cooked up a truly crazy hypothesis about black holes and the Big Bang (https://www.erasmatazz.com/library/science/speculations-on-cosmology.html), then discovered that somebody else had already published a paper presenting the idea. My reaction was “Jeez, here I thought that I was soaring off into Cloud Cuckoo Land and I discover that there are people ahead of me. Is there no place that a wild and crazy guy can be alone?”
My most important intellectual achievement is in my work on “Process versus Object”. I described the idea in a series of essays on my website: https://www.erasmatazz.com/library/course-description-2018/object-versus-process.html. et seq. I’m quite pleased with that concept.
My life goal has always been simple: to make the world a better place. After years of struggle and uncertainty, I have finally achieved in my old age a modicum of success in meeting that goal. Thus, aging has been a good time for me. My wife and I tell ourselves that this is the best time in our lives.
Your joke in the “good news” paragraph made me smile.
The best humor reveals insights into human nature.
I too will (hopefully) turn 70- in October. The searching for names/words that I know has become more and more prevalent.
Good to hear that I am not alone in that regard.
Continued good health to you Professor.
If you have not watched this short film about philosopher Herbert Fingarette and his thoughts on being 97, I highly recommend it. https://aeon.co/videos/an-ageing-philosopher-returns-to-the-essential-question-what-is-the-point-of-it-all
I’d like to add some levity and ask why I’ve been practicing sleeping for almost fifty years, and I make a poorer subject every day! I hope the torment is none the worse in twenty more. And I’m still in denial that I couldn’t throw two innings for the Astros, even if my curve was breaking well that day. Happy belated birthday, Doc!
thanks for commenting Lyle and you’ll join me in the 70s soon.
I watched it a few years ago but had forgotten about it so thanks for reminding me
thanks Jason for the well wishes. And by age 70 you are no longer in denial about your declining physical capabilities.
In some ways, I have gotten more aggressive and confrontational while getting older.
At the same time, I am appreciative of those who afford deference and respect to others.
The first sentence here is demonstrative of my exclusion, final I suppose, from a UK blog.
I have not been able to comment there for months, after they altered their robot-detector, in such a way as to exclude me—AFTER including me for several months. I end this with my addition/amendment to the line from the Rolling Stones’ epic rock tune, “You can’t always get what you want”. Exactly right. I pivoted on that, claiming: you don’t always want what you get. I think that is also true. So, my forced exit from participation on the blog mentioned is regrettable. I don’t lose sleep over THAT.Other bloggers may disagree with things I say. OK. I’m still here, for now, age notwithstanding. Sure.
Turning 70 from the female perspective is different from a societal standpoint. We become (even more) invisible… which can have its pros and cons. Old men can still considered ruggedly handsome while social media feels the need to post pics of Jennifer Lopez at 60 as if to say “can you believe it” she still looks acceptable. Geez.
I’m freakishly healthy for my age. I retired from singing in a rock band four years ago because my ears couldn’t take it anymore. I also opted to not have children, and I think the combination of not having children and still being able to belt Ann Wilson and Pat Benetar has kept me feeling more youthful than most my age. It’s been a theory that people tend to age themselves by life milestones; becoming a parent, a grand parent. I’m free-floating in that regard. Plus, I don’t look 70. Having said all that, there is something to be said for the “milestone” birthdays and its emotional effects. I approached this birthday thinking that it’s going to be cool, and I still believe that. But, I can’t stop the creeping fearful thoughts of my own mortality and my cognitive function. Being a lifelong singer, I can recall long ago lyrics that come to mind so effortlessly that it’s shocking. Conversely, I can’t remember what I was going to do after I just had the thought to do it. Argh!! I shake my first at my own brain. In conclusion, I suspect the healthiest thing is to not go “kicking and screaming” like I want to do, but instead, to quote REO Speedwagon, go with the changes.
thanks so much for the comments. And welcome to the 70 club. Us boomers are getting old.