As a parent, I don’t always agree with the dietary or lifestyle choices of my children. I have a 27-year-old daughter and a 17-year-old daughter. As far as I am concerned, they are both free to make their own dietary choices independent of my own personal will. One because she is a fully grown adult no longer dependent on my financial means for life, and the other because I choose to not interfere directly with her decision-making processes as she continues to develop into adulthood. With the younger of the two, I only asked that she, in exchange for her freedom of choice, allow me to share with her my own understanding about what I understand to be the best way of approaching both physical and dietary lifestyle practices. I figure she is best served by being educated along with being allowed her freedom of choice.
Sometimes I do cringe at some of the choices both of them make, but they are both good children and listen to me respectfully when I feel the need to disagree with their choices verbally.
From an external perspective, I don’t ever want to see my children suffer. I would want them to never encounter any form of disease. I want them each to live a life full of experiences completely free from anything that could hinder that experience.
So what if, I could grant them a life full of years. 127 years with a body that looked, felt, and by all measures was no more than 24. A body that stops aging once fully grown that was never able to experience disease. A life without hindrance where their bodies would remain free of disease or aging as we currently know it. Living to a ripe old age of 127 years and simply falling asleep one night never to wake up again. Would I choose that for them? Probably.
I imagine I would do the same thing for all of my family members if I could.
Now, what if that meant that they would have to exercise 30 minutes a day and eat a whole food plant-based diet? To me, that would be a no-brainer. I already do that myself and don’t find it to be a burden in any way.
If we could step outside of our box and look at ourselves objectively as just another human living amongst 8 Billion other humans, as an individual creation, how would we choose for ourselves? What decisions do we make because we are blinded by our own box that results in self-deception and self-sabotage? What if we could see ourselves as a part of a whole, whose purpose is greater than the sum of its individual parts and how would that affect our decision-making processes?
I suspect that if we could truly understand ourselves as a singular part of a greater whole that we would start making better decisions with the individual biological units we call our bodies. Because then, at least, we could see that our health and well-being are not just ours, but something more.
What if we could step outside of our own bodies and look at ourselves from a distance? If we weren’t able to communicate to that person that we are looking at that is us, what would we hope for in them?
I know for me that I would not want to see myself suffer ever again. I would want a life that was as full as possible. Filled with time. A life well spent. A life where wealth is not measured in denominations or monetary exchange, but one that is filled with our most precious asset, time. Time is truly the most valuable asset we have and we spend it each and every day. Sometimes wisely, other times not so much. The sad part is, once it is spent there is no way of getting it back. Time is the only true currency we have.
From that outside perspective, how would we love ourselves? If we knew that there was a way to maximize the human experience, topping off the totality of experience and time to a full 127 years(Option A) with a body that looked and felt no more than a robust and healthy 24, would we want that for our visible self?
What if the other option was a life that ended painfully at 78.5 years(Option B). A life that only had 65 useful years where the only real choice was a life of retirement, where our health would continue to decline until our body ultimately succumbed to a disease like cancer, Parkinson’s, or dementia? Which would we choose for that self we are observing from a distance? Would we be okay watching our life wither and our health fail or would we want to do something about it?
What about our grandchildren? What would they choose for us? Option A or option B? What would you have chosen for your grandparents? I know for me that I would love nothing more at 50 years of age than to know that I had another 27 years of time to spend with my grandparents that have long passed away. I’m not even sure that would be a tough decision to make. I would definitely go for option A.
These are the questions I ask myself as I seek a better way to convince my fellow man that we have so much potential that is going unfulfilled. It’s bad enough that we waste time, but what bothers me more is that people aren’t even aware that there is something we could, or should be able to do regarding that potential 50 years we are leaving on the table. And this is what drives me. What gives me that desire to continually move forward in figuring out how to undo the effects of aging that have plagued me into my fifth decade. I want to be that grandpa that is around to not only see his great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren but also be able to play with them at their own energy level without physical hindrances. I want to be that example so that they can see that it is possible to not have to fall headlong into disease if they choose.