Us older folks have the advantage in life:
We’re closer to death.
Nothing creates a desire to live fully like Fear of Death. You can ponder this idea in your younger years but until you circle the sun enough to feel it in your body, Fear of Death can’t go to work for you.
It’s a panic, a very real body-tremoring terror that you’re running out of time.
Because, to say it straight, you ARE running out of time. That’s just how it is. For all of us.
It doesn’t matter how brilliant you are, how many great ideas you’ve stacked up, how in love you are. There’s no logic, no fairness. Eventually, you will go.
But it doesn’t have to be sad. If you can walk through that panic, or better yet, stare it down and live alongside it, you will find the best years of your life, bright and slow, minute by minute, like a halo of light around you, your favorite music always playing.
And, when it comes to winning this wicked game of breathing and hurting and loving, there is no greater advantage I can think of.