The other day, my students and I engaged in a conversation about aging. One of the students expressed his opinion that, every day, we all die a little bit more. Meaning, the older a person is, the closer he or she is to death. While there were several different viewpoints - some arguing they didn't agree - it did make me think more about the idea.
Obviously, being in a room with a whole bunch of college students makes me the "closest" to actual death - based on numerical age, of course. But the thing is, I don't feel like I'm close to death at all. Sure, my body can't recover as quickly as it once did. And I'm definitely not in the shape I was in during my 20s, but I don't feel old. I feel out of shape and lazy. But that's not necessarily age, just laziness, which is something for another blog entry entirely!
The conversation in class made me think of a scene from the movie, Shawshank Redemption, where Andy and Red talk about their dreams and their futures. I think that people who don't follow their dreams, who live their lives in fear, and who are always worried about the past or the future, are the ones who are dying a little bit each day. It doesn't matter what their actual ages are, but what they are doing with their lives. So, the 20 year old who does things without any purpose (majoring in something she hates, just to get a degree and get out) is waiting to die moreso than the 60 year old woman who decides to finally take up an activity she has always wanted to try (against her kids' wishes).
I'm not saying throw away common sense, mind you, but I do think there is something to be said about doing something with one's life - making it meaningful - rather than just going through the motions to just get by. If a person does things to "just get by," one day, his/her entire life will have passed by...
Because really, if you aren't out there living life, what exactly are you doing?
...wasting time until you die, I suppose.
So, it comes down to a simple choice: get busy living or get busy dying!
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