Reflections on personal identity and aging in one's seventies

¶ … 70s, I think I will be a wise person, who still loves life. The things I love and the way I approach the world might be different, however. I enjoy the experience of learning things and acquiring knowledge, so I think that by my 70s I will have acquired substantial amounts of knowledge. Knowing me, I will use that wisdom to be one of those opinionated old people who wants to impart my knowledge and insight to make the world a better place. By that point I will have had a number of amazing life experiences. I will have probably received a high level of education and had some amazing life experiences like floating down the Amazon or seeing the pyramids. I will have continued to learn and this will bring me a lot of knowledge that I can use to be better person, and offer insight and wise advice to the younger generations.

I will value quiet time, probably more so than I do now. I can see the value at that age of taking things slowly, and only wanting to do precisely what I want. I believe that what I want will involve hobbies and family for the most part. I will probably indulge my artistic side, and might even live in one of those artistic places like Santa Fe or New Orleans. I will paint, do sculpture maybe write a little poetry.

I am already concerned with making the world a better place, and I think that as I age I will become more concerned about this. In my 70s I will want to leave the world a better place than I found it. I am not sure what the issues of the day will be, but I will probably be politically active, or least opinionated. I will be very concerned for my grandchildren and the type of world they will grow up in. I think that right now is a great time to be alive but for them whether it is better or worse I will want to do whatever I can to make it better.

I hope that my health will be good. There are some things over which a person has some control, so I want to do what I can to make sure I am healthy. I have seen elderly people in poor health and that must be very difficult to know that you will never be healthy again. So for me, being healthy later on in life is something that is important. I would love it if I was able to still be physically active. I also hope to still have my full cognitive facilities. Memory often declines as we age, but hopefully not too much. I will need to work hard to keep up my mental abilities. I think this will require stimulation throughout my life to keep my mind sharp, because without a sharp mind I will not enjoy my 70s as much.

I also will want to work on my soul. One of the things that people in their 70s must deal with is death. To a point, I will still have the attitude that I want to live every minute of my life to its fullest, but the specter of death will be there in my 70s will be more prominent. This will drive me to explore my spiritual side, to evaluate my relationship with God and make sure that I am preparing myself for the day when I realize that life is coming to an end. I do not want to be one of the scared, depressed old people who has not accepted their fate, I want to embrace the incredibleness of life in my later years.