The Fear of Growing Old

By Hamda AlHashemi (@Hamda_AlHashemi)

Doug Larson once said, “The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get the urge to throw a snowball.” We bend our heads for a few moments every once in a while to see how far we have gone, and sometimes we are shocked to realize that we have gone a really long way. It is the same with aging; we are so caught up in this busy world we live in that we do not find time to actually catch up with things, and to look at how we are changing. Time moves so fast, and most of us are lost in the process.

This month I attended five of my friends’ weddings. I looked at each one of them and thought of our ages, all the memories we have built together, and how a young girl becomes a lady. For a moment I thought to myself: why is everything happening so fast! We need more time! And then I realized, time was always there, it is just that we were the ones who were not really there. Do we spend enough time with the ones we love? Did we do our best in all these years that went by?

When we thoroughly think about age and time, we think about old people and young people. But we fail to understand that time is just a tool; a stopwatch, to let you estimate how much time you have used and how much you have got left. Our achievements, our maturity, and our spirits, are the true measure of age. How young you are is connected to how influential you are, and how effective you can be. It is more about your attitude towards people and situations. Wrinkles are a sign that reminds you that you are running out of time.

When I used a see one of my old neighborhood friends with her baby, I used to feel afraid. I feared that I am not as young as I used to be, and that I will not be able to do so many things I dreamed of doing. James LeGros’s acrylic painting, Fear of Growing Old, is a perfect way to portrait the thing I felt. A young woman, who is so afraid of being old that it shows on her face. She is already old because of those thoughts and worries that haunt her. She still has more time to do so much, but she is worn out because she is wasting time and thought over fear; the fear of old age.

When I look at that painting, when I look at those harsh strokes, and worried eyes, I feel like that lady brought that worry to herself. Even if she was 25 years old biologically, she might seem older than 60 years old. Why so? Because of her attitude, because of that phobia that once her physical appearance changes, she will lose everything along with it.

In the words of John Barrymore, “A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.” Old people and young people are very much alike; they are both people presented with different opportunities. Whereas the funny thing is, people fear being old, even though when they are old they will probably make better choices; they were introduced to life and are more familiar with it. Yet for the sake of shallow, physical appearances, some sentence themselves to death and leave everything on pause.

If you did not know your age, how old would you be? There are a lot of people I met on social networks who I thought were old, but it turns out that some of them were as young as I am. But because I saw how wise they seemed, and how mature they were, I imagined I was talking to people with experience. We determine our own age through our attitude. So it is up to you to use your time wisely to stay young.

22^nd Issue – January 2012
Here We Start – Art of Living 101 – Beyond Inspiration
Blunders of a Wanna Be Entrepreneur – Community Talk – Scenes from Life
Sense and Sustainability – Too Blunt For Words – To The Point