Decline and growth

It's that time of year again; Planet Earth is back in that same position vis-a-vis the sun where it was when I was born - for the sixty-first time.

Physical decline; spiritual growth

It is happening, but the symptoms (other than looking at an increasingly old face in the mirror) are not upon me yet; my blood pressure is lower than it was this time last year (across an average of three readings a day in September); I’m doing more paces and more physical exercises than this time last year. Anyone out there able to do 40 press-ups in one go?

While our physical decline is inevitable, its speed and intensity are not. A closer interest in one’s health, fitness and diet pays dividends long-term. Our parents’ generation did not walk 10,000 paces a day, nor work out on a regular basis, nor observe limits to their food and drink intake. They smoked more and saw no dangers in eating processed sugar. These tools are here to nudge us toward a healthier way of life – and a longer (on average) lifespan. A tendency that is likely to continue.

Physical decline as we age is inevitable but spiritual growth over time is not.

Older should mean wiser – but clearly it doesn’t. When I look at our leaders, around the world, I see precious few who exude the calm wisdom that age should have bestowed upon them. Chasing the material rewards that human life has on offer – wealth and power – often (but not always) has the effect of closing down that part of the human consciousness that is curious about those deeper matters. Cynicism is corrosive and negative; shun cynicism and cynics. In particular at ballot boxes.

Curiosity and observation…

Imagine early humans staring into the night sky, noting celestial bodies about the heavens. Over the millennia, sophisticated systems for tracking and predicting their movement developed. Constellations, horoscopes, myths, portents – and all with the naked eye (the telescope being invented a mere half-millennium ago). Ancient Chinese, Mayans, Greeks, Indians, Egyptians had all independently created intensely detailed systems based on their celestial observations; meaning was ascribed to these heavenly movements; juxtapositions of stars and planets could foretell human destinies.

[Brief aside: what's more likely - that people sharing my birth-date have similarities in their personality because the constellation of Libra was transited by the sun, or because their mothers in pregnancy enjoyed a diet richer in fresh summer fruit and veg, and had greater exposure to sunlight than mothers of children born in March?]

Newtonian science has been pushing back at innate superstition, but it's like squishing plasticine in your hand, as soon as one mystery is solved, new ones ooze out between the fingers of scientists.  Quantum science leaves us knowing that there’s a lot more that we don’t know. That early-20th century certainty that we are just years away from solving everything today looks laughably naive. The answers will come, but slowly, over thousands of generations. Yes, we will continue, we will have close shaves and scrapes with our own mass extinction, but we will survive, the accent on the word ‘will’. And indeed, the word ‘we’.

My own spiritual journey is one of acceptance that our sense of self is a distraction; it’s a biological defence mechanism that ensures survival, but it stands in the way of the Bigger Picture. The notion that because in this life I am good, I will be rewarded in the next life (and its corollary that I will be punished if I am bad) assumes a link between our ego and our awareness, which in my own journey of discovery I’ve learnt is slight – appearing in briefest of flashbacks. The qualia-memories resulting from your observations, detached from your ego, are what will live on.

I have focused on spiritual growth – what about growth of human creativity? When I look at musicians and artists, I see precious few who have created anything in their sixties that excels their output when they were young. Writers, however, improve over time – but the work-rate slows. Work-rate is so important to us humans. I’m a slow learner – and generally slow at doing things – had I been faster, I’d have achieved a lot more, faster – though probably at the expense of burn-out. Living the slow life, taking my time, savouring rather than gulping, a marathon runner rather than a sprinter – very much like my father, more than halfway from 90 to 100, and in amazing form for his age. Am I passed my creative best? Certainly, my blogging output (as one measure) is down; but is quality on the rise? I’ll let you be the judge.

We are told that we come from nothing and will return to nothing. I believe something else – we come from everything and we will return to everything.

Making the most of our human potential is what it is all about.

This time last year:
Health at 60

This time three years ago:
In search of vectors for migrating consciousness

This time four years ago:
Slipping from late summer to early autumn

This time five years ago:
Turning 56

This time six years ago: 
Turning 55 

This time seven years ago:
Turning 54

This time eight years ago:
Turning 53

This time 11 years ago:
Turning 50