Aging vs. Dying: Why Staying Curious Keeps You Alive

I have noticed a big difference between aging and dying. Let me explain.

Though it may sound like semantics, there is a distinct attitude or mentality between these two perspectives. Dying results from putting up walls, pulling in, and shutting down your curiosity. Aging is listening, learning, changing, maturing, and growing.

The Subtle Signs of Dying

I see people around me who are beginning to close their circle of relational influence and limit their intake of information which may be contrary to their position. They are not learning new things, nor are they developing new relationships. They settle into what they know and that with which they are comfortable.

If you ask them what they are reading, they may tell you some magazines or fictional books that allow them to live vicariously.

However, there is little that challenges their existence or knowledge.

I fully understand we all will get to this stage eventually, but from my perspective, too many people enter this stage prematurely. They die too early. I saw it in my early 30s and was surprised at how many young people began dying in their early 30s. Now that I am in my 70s, I see it so much more.

People are amazed that we would go to Morocco at 70, or move from Orlando at 70 when we had lived there for almost 40 years. Ironically, many of the people who have moved on to our block are about the same age; however, many moved to be closer to kids or grandkids (which is not a bad thing!). Those who didn't could be aging, not dying.

What Aging Really Means

Aging is very different from dying. It is appropriately acknowledging one's age and some of the limitations thereof. For instance, I don't have the energy I used to. I take Fridays off and have done so for the last few years. I don't work nearly the hours I used to. However, I do walk, run, ride, mow my lawn, and such.

I am still ordering books, reading them, and learning new things. We are building new relationships with neighbors and often with younger people. Yes, I am writing, mentoring and speaking into the lives of a lot of people rather than doing the work. But I am seeking to help them become more effective through my input into their lives.

So by necessity, aging results in some areas diminishing, but it is also expanding other areas. I am not leading Healthy Growing Leaders, but I am doing more of what I am wired to do and loving it so much more.

The Expansive Nature of Aging

The interesting thing about the dichotomy of Aging/Dying is that it begins in one's 30s but isn't as obvious until people reach their 50s and 60s. By the time they get into their 70s it is in full bloom.

Dying people are small-minded in many ways, while aging people are expansive in their wisdom and perspective. The difference may be obvious physically, but not always. Aging people are still concerned with physically taking good care of themselves, while dying people simply let themselves fall into a spiral of physical decay.

Aging people don't deny their age or the inevitable physical degradation, but they don't just coast along with it. They actively resist it by engaging in activity which slows the process.

Still Dreaming

I love the passage in Acts 2 as Peter is speaking about the presence of God's Spirit being abundantly available to all who are followers of Christ. He quotes the Old Testament prophet Joel, when in Acts 2:17 he says:

In the last days, God says,

I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

your young men will see visions,

your old men will dream dreams.

As people stop dreaming of what could be, they start dying. But Peter reminds us that on that day (Pentecost), the Spirit fell on all his people, young, old, male, and female. This would result in old people dreaming again.

I do believe and have experienced God's Spirit continuing to keep me hopeful that some of God's dreams for me will yet come to reality. So, despite my aging, I am not yet dying. I will die someday, just not there yet!