The Fountain of Youthfulness | Healthy Aging Series: S12 E7
“In advertising, sex sells, but only if you’re selling sex,” wrote Jef I. Richards, a professor of advertising at Michigan State University in 1998. But that was not the first mention of using sex in advertising. In 1871, Pearl Tobacco featured a naked maiden on its packaging.
I think there are many advertising agencies that are spending millions, and millions, and millions of dollars to prove that belief is wrong. As a result, there’s a lot of pressure on men and women to look younger and sexier.
I’m not going to bore you with examples of this pressure, but it is part of our culture and a big part of the global culture, and it affects the way we dress, our sense of self-worth, and the amount of money that we spend to look younger.
People have been forever seeking The Fountain of Youth.
This past week my wife and I spent a couple days at Shaker Village in Pleasant Hill, Kentucky. This community was started by Shaker missionaries in 1805 and was built on the belief that people should remain celibate. It was a vibrant community, mostly. Mother Ann, the founder, preached that your hands were for work and your heart was for God.
I’ve often thought that the Shakers were the first to promote a DEI environment. Their community had a wide range of people with different backgrounds, involved fairly allocating resources based on individual needs, and created a culture where everyone felt valued, respected, and able to contribute. Men and women were treated equally as were people from different ethnic backgrounds, and they valued members as they got older.
I noted this to show they were able to cloister themselves from ageism and sex-focused marketing pressures, or any sexual pressure, for that matter. They didn’t seem to be tempted by The Fountain of Youth.
None of us are going to join a cloistered religious group. We are all going to be tempted by the Fountain of Youth partly because we’re human. We all feel a sense of inadequacy as we age. Some would argue that women pay the price more than men, and I would agree with that.
There is a heavy bias of ageism that runs through this culture, devaluing people as they get older. We all fall victim to our own ageism. This often occurs when we start to devalue ourselves as we get older.
The Substance
Demi Moore stars in The Substance, a film that tackles ageism by highlighting how society often values youth over aging. The movie suggests we all contribute to this belief and reminds us that there is no Fountain of Youth. Sorry, not sorry.
People who fall prey to seeking the Fountain of Youth live tortured lives as they do almost anything and spend almost everything to find it.
It’s time to give it up, the Fountain of Youth!
It’s time to start valuing who you are completely apart from what society and culture think about you. It’s time to start living a full and meaningful life, at any age, and at every age.
It’s time to see yourself as more than a body, more than your physical attributes, and more than how you think society values you.
I’m talking about the Fountain of Youthfulness.
I’m talking about feeling and acting in ways that betray your age.
I often tell the story that my mother always said that she would never want to be any age other than what she was at that time.
I think that embodies, at least in part, the meaning of the Fountain of Youthfulness.
By feeling youthful, I don’t mean that you will not have any aches and pains, or that you’re not going to experience the physical decay of aging.
Memento Mori. We all need to be aware of our mortality and embrace it.
But that doesn’t mean that we can’t be playful, love, explore, and engage in the lives of people of all ages.
Norman Lear
I remind people of the interview that I watched with Norman Lear when he was 93. The interviewer asked him what his secret was for appearing so youthful.
And he said, “I treat everyone as my peer.”
I’m sure Norman Lear was experiencing all the physical aches and pains of aging. But he didn’t let it affect his youthful engagement with the world.
So, how do we attain, or find the Fountain of Youthfulness?
My wife and I have done a YouTube video on True North Waypoints YouTube channel with the same title, and I invite you to hear some of what she has to say about the Fountain of Youthfulness.
Here’s what we shared in the video.
First, and this is not new news from me, you have to eat right and exercise. I believe in the body/mind connection, and if you want to feel youthful, you must take care of your body.
My wife and I both exercise almost every day, we walk after every dinner on the days that the weather allows. I’m dictating this on my phone as I’m hiking in the Jefferson Memorial Forest.
When it comes to nutrition, keep it simple. Most research says that you need 1.5 g of protein per kilogram of weight. That would be around 100 g of protein a day for me. Along with that protein, you most likely need to increase your fruits and vegetables. You should be eating at least two servings of vegetables, a day, and one serving of fruit. And then make sure you’re getting enough omega-3 fatty acids. It’s that simple. Exercise and eat right.
Second, you need a youthful mindset about life. You have to learn to adjust to the things that won’t adjust to you. As I look at most children, they tend to have a rather flexible attitude about life, or the “Live life on life’s terms approach,” which is what brings about a more youthful mindset. None of this is brain surgery. Eating right, exercising, and being flexible in your outlook on life, are all simple ways to be youthful.
Third, start hanging out with younger people. I have a few older friends, but most of my friends are younger than me. I enjoy hanging out with older adults as well, my father-in-law is a good example of that, but I think it’s important to rub shoulders with younger adults, and let them infect you with their music, their social media platforms, and their ideas. I love hanging out with my two sons for that reason. And of course, I love hanging out with my wife, who is younger, and I love listening to and exploring her ideas.
Fourth, have a reason or purpose for living. In a previous episode from this season I’ve written, “How to Discover Your Superpower.” Our superpower is our purpose in life, and it gives us a reason to get up every day and go into the world and change it and maybe save it. That is a true youthful spirit!
I could add other things that you can do to be more youthful, to include getting a good night’s sleep, exercising your brain by studying new ideas, and learning new skills.
Really, maintaining a youthful outlook on life and being mistaken for a younger adult is all about not giving up, not throwing in the towel, and not giving in to cynicism.
Maybe cynicism is the virus that robs us of our youthfulness.
It’s amazing how, having a positive outlook on life and taking care of your body, can short-circuit cynicism.
We all struggle with vanity. We all want to look good. Nothing wrong with that.
I just lost 10 pounds because I didn’t like the way I look in my YouTube videos. But I didn’t lose the weight because I wanted to look younger.
We are never going to fully escape the propaganda about the Fountain of Youth, but we can be happy at any age, satisfied with who we are right now.
