Happy Birthday
Jul 14, 2024
How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?
Have you ever thought about that?
Imagine if you didn’t know when you were born or how to count revolutions around the Sun. Would you know how old you were? Would you even have a concept of age?
And, if you didn’t know how to count years, and you didn’t know how to measure your lifespan, would you ever grow “old?” Would you even imagine labeling yourself as old?
And if you didn’t label yourself as old, do you think you would ever feel old?
Let’s take it further.
What if you also never looked in a mirror?
Sure, your hair could be out of place, but if you didn’t have a mirror or a way to check your reflection and see your body, would you have any concept of personal aging? Yes, you could see aging happening to others around you, but not to you - do you think you would ever be able to feel old?
Come to think of it, if you couldn’t see your body in a mirror, do you think you could ever have a body image problem? I mean, if there is no image to reflect on, there is likely no “reflection” to cause the pain of “too skinny,” “too fat,” “too old,” “unattractive,” “attractive,” etc…
Can you imagine the you that you would be? A you with no labels, a you free from running programs created from labels. No concept of “40.” No concept of wrinkly or pudgy or skinny. Just you, looking out at the world and feeling in at your body.
Have you ever done that? Have you ever “felt in?” My dad told me a couple of years ago, “In my mind, I feel like I did when I was a kid. I can’t do the things I used to do, but I feel the same.” I think about this often. On the inside, I feel like the same person I was when I was five years old. I mean that the narrative and the “state of being” in my body are pretty much the same. I’m the same experiencer viewing the world. I’m not sure I would have any clue how old I was if I didn’t know how old I was. And there are days when someone asks me how old I am, I have to think about it and do math - I am grateful for those days by the way.
I guess my point is that I think many of us would be a whole lot younger and happier if we didn’t run the programs we create with our labels, our words, our judgments, and our knowledge. Age is just a number, but it is often a number that carries a weight with it, and with that weight, it embeds itself into our physique, and we “play the part” that the number dictates.
It’s tough. Even if you refuse to act your age, your knowledge of your age causes you to rebel against it. You’re still resisting something created by a label, therefore resisting something you don’t want because of your knowledge of the label and the stigma or weight it carries.
“65 years old.”
What does that create in your mind?
“65,” “years,” “old.”
They all carry weight in your computing brain.
But they are just labels. Unless you accept the labels and run the programs they represent, they are not your reality. I know I just said that refusing to act your age still carries a cost due to your knowledge. But what if you change or erase what you know? What if you forget how old you are? What if you created new programs for the labels to represent? Or what if you ignore the labels? What if 65 was just a number halfway to 130 and had no other weight attached to it? What if old was just a sound that rhymed with bold?
I know this is all nuts, but many of us are forgoing vitality and happiness due to having too much “knowledge.” We know too much. We measure things. We create norms and standards based on these measurements. We then allow these standards and norms to define, bind, or excuse us from any responsibility or hope. We end up playing for averages instead of reaching for the moon. We accept being and feeling mediocre instead of living in our design to be strong and empowered.
I know. It’s a crazy thought. But it could be a thought worth having.
Really, can you imagine having no concept of age or having no concept of how old you are?
How would you live? How would you feel? Would you ever think to blame back pain on your age? Would you ever accept weakness as part of growing old? Would you think it normal to have diabetes once you reached a certain age? No, I don’t think you would.
We are bigger than labels. We are not supposed to act our age. We are made to thrive at any age, at every age. If we could put aside the information we carry and “feel in,” we just might notice that we feel alive and that life that we feel, is ageless. And that’s the label we should own - we are ageless from the inside out.
I’m sorry. I’m thinking about this because Longevity is the new big thing. There are now longevity pioneers researching everything and doing everything they can do to live forever. Many are avoiding all toxins, all blue lights, all meat, all vegetables, and all joys. It seems we are now trying so hard to live forever that we are missing out on living. I think we would be better off just forgetting our age and living our lives out of joy instead of binding our lives to the labels of fear. I’m not saying we shouldn’t make good life-enhancing choices. But I wonder how bold and joyful we could live if we didn’t know our age or weren’t afraid of tomorrow.
Comments (0)
Please login to comment.