“At Your Age?”

“Act your age”, “I was looking for someone younger”, “What do you think you’re doing – at your age?”

I been hearing these comments a lot recently addressed to me and others around my ‘age’

This may sound like a bit of a rant, and I suppose it is, because as a ‘victim’ I find this stuff very ‘ageist’.

It would be considered at least politically incorrect (an attitude I don’t subscribe to by the way) or actually illegal, to make comments like these on the grounds of gender, religion, ability or race – or pretty much any other parameter.

But is seems, except in the field of recruitment, that people have no qualms about making disparaging comments or decisions based on age, or to openly hold strong prejudices and discriminate on the grounds of age.

Now don’t get me wrong, this works both ways. The ‘young’ discriminate against the ‘old, and the ‘old’ against the ‘young’ – whatever those adjectives mean.

But the thing is that age is not real, it’s only a function of time which I’ve previously suggested is not ‘real’ either.

You and I are spiritual beings inhabiting a human body – an ‘earth suit’ as Mary Morrissey would put it.

And You and I, the spirits who inhabit these bodies, do not age. – we gain knowledge and experience over time and according to the paths we take, that turns into wisdom. The longer we maintain our bodies the wiser we get.

Older and wiser – with the emphasis on the latter.

But people who don’t understand who they are, believing they are actually the body they live in, make assumptions.

That the ‘young’ know nothing, and that the ‘old’ have one foot in the grave and are of no use to society any more and have, or will, just become a ‘burden’.

The ‘old’ can’t ‘perform’ any more, and the ‘young’ don’t know how to.

Those who consider themselves ‘in between’ are the worst ‘ageism’ offenders and it’s based, like all prejudices, and all ‘issues’ on fear.

The up and coming young with new ideas and behaviours are seen as a threat, and the old are seen as what younger people are afraid of becoming – useless, incapable and a burden on society.

All irrational nonsense but as many philosophers have pointed out, what you think becomes true. If someone believes they will become incapable when they reach a certain age, then they will.

Only those who understand that the spirit inside their bodies has no age, have taken control of and look after their physical side, know that the age of the body is irrelevant.

The media don’t help – especially the advertising industry heavily populated by younger people who have a concept of age based on their grandparents.

But time moves on and ‘grandparents’ aren’t the same now as they were 50 years ago – and they are getting younger. (I know a grandparent who is younger than my stepson – and he’s only 47!). Certainly not the ‘guaranteed over 50’s plan’ image portrayed by a well known insurance company.

And then there’s the idea that us ‘old folks’ aren’t up to speed with technology, forgetting the fact that it was our generation (or even the one before) that ‘invented’ it. Some of us have been working with it and watching it develop since before some of these ‘youngsters’ parents were born!

Just because a person’s body is ‘a certain age’ has no bearing on capabilities or interests. But of course, the body does deteriorate however much ‘maintenance’ we give it and there may be some things older people cannot do any more but they don’t care because they’ve already done it!

But the ageists take no account of anyone’s history, capability, interests or ambitions – they just make assumptions based on gross generalisations.

Unfortunately a lot of people fall for this ageist propaganda, and when they reach a certain age they become what they think they are expected to be.

They stop. They ‘retire’, They shut down, and they abandon any vision of the future they may have had because they have been convinced that they are ‘too old’ and the ‘old’ aren’t supposed to have a future.

They just sit down and ‘wait for God’ – such a waste of potential.

No vision – no spirit – no life.

You and I though, do have a vision – or at least I hope you do – a vision to sustain us for as long as it takes to be achieved.

Interestingly, despite the ‘American Dream’ of smart cars, fine houses and exotic holidays, for most people it’s not about that.

Most of the ‘visions’ I’ve discussed with people, especially ‘older’ people, involve helping others to achieve something. There is a material element as well but that’s never the primary driver.

When you and I have visions that contribute to the overall improvement and evolution of the human spirit in its entirety, ‘age’ becomes irrelevant.

Your vision and my vision will sustain our physical lives until they are achieved – as long as they are clear and are about becoming ‘a person of increase’ in the good of humanity. (As described by Wallace Wattles in ‘The Science of Getting Rich’)

I’m further clarifying my life sustaining vision.

You?