The New Self-Help
Fear of Aging Is a Technology Problem
This story is part of The New Self-Help: 21 Books for a Better You in the 21st Century.
It’s no wonder we’re afraid of getting older. The so-called problem of aging is trumpeted everywhere we turn. We hear the message that aging is a great social ill, a necessary evil, a drain on society, and an affront to aesthetics. The way people talk about old age, you’d think it was a scourge akin to leprosy, or an annoying houseguest who shows up and never leaves. We, the aging, are viewed as a burden instead of a resource.
In the dominant culture, where technology reigns, information is valued far more than wisdom. But there is a difference between the two. Information involves the acquisition, organization, and dissemination of facts; a storing-up of physical data. Wisdom adds another equally crucial function: the emptying and quieting of the mind, the application of the heart, and the alchemy of reason and feeling.
In the wisdom mode, we’re not processing information, analytically or sequentially. We’re standing back and viewing the whole, discerning what matters and what does not, weighing the meaning and depth of things.
