Quote Originally Posted by OakLeaf View Post
I think a lot of middle age in American culture is about "preventing death" and defining yourself as an object of the medical industry.

Accepting where I am right now has been all about rejecting that worldview. In the history of the world, only two deaths have reportedly been prevented: the prophet Elijah and the Virgin Mary - and those were anecdotal and in any event not accomplished by the medical industry.

I've decided that I'm utterly unwilling to sacrifice the quality of my life for the possibility of extending it (often for a rather short time). "Be here now" is my motto. (The flip side - how the medical industry would have middle-aged people live our lives - reminds me of that old saying, "The food is terrible! And the portions, they're so small!" )

I'm updating my Living Will... to be VERY tight and restrictive... and hoping that it will be respected if and when the time comes.

As a milestone, my 50th birthday barely bothered me. I had two goals to complete in the six weeks before that birthday - my first half-marathon and a notorious two-day bike tour that I'd been afraid of since I first heard of it over 30 years ago. So when the birthday did roll around, I was still riding the crest of that exhilaration (and wondering whether, in fact, I shouldn't wait until my 100th birthday for that first full marathon ).

JMO...
I absolutely agree with you, Oak Leaf. Not just middle-age, but LIFE in America is all about preventing death! We all spend so much time and effort fighting a battle that we're guaranteed to lose, that we lose the joy along the way.

I've had a couple of cancer scares and I remember the extreme suffering I went through because I was imagining what it was going to be like for me to be forced to fight cancer. I wasn't worried about what the cancer would do to me, but the fight. I imagined myself losing my hair from chemo, getting sick from chemo, traveling to doctor appointment after doctor appointment, going through multiple surgeries etc. etc. I had a complete meltdown.

When we fight aging, we're fighting death. When we accept the fact that we're going to die, things get easier.