People did not look at him with a crooked eye
in childhood, this and gray will still be nice to them.
Kallimach, Aitia (Translation by Zofia Cierniakowa)
Preliminary motto from the author
If, as a medic, I am writing a book about gerontology, it seems obvious that this science must refer to specific diseases occurring in the age group, beginning above the accepted borderline, the age of 65 of a person. So whether the association string must automatically work; neonatology - disorders and diseases of infants, paediatrics - children diseases etc?
Is there old age sickness?
It is definitely not! After all, illness is a reaction of the system to the disease agent, leading to depletion of the adaptive capacity of the system, to disturbances in the interaction of organs and tissues, and in consequence to functional disorders and organic changes in tissues, organs, systems and the entire human system.
Is there old age can it be a disability? Certainly not, because we disable a serious injury that hinders or prevents its normal functioning.
Of course, old age is only a natural period of life, following the adulthood, just like youth, preceded by childhood, is the period of human life before entering adulthood. The desire for immortality and longing for eternal youth, and at the same time the awareness of the inevitability of aging and death, have fascinated people since the dawn of time.
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Cicero in its treatise, Katon the Elder, concerning old age and from the first century BC, writes:
When I think about old age, four see the reasons why we used to consider old age as an unhappy life: it distances us from active life, weakens physical strength, deprives us of all sensual pleasures, is close to death.
Cicero's reflections on passing and death do not lose their relevance, because despite modern research techniques, many questions about the aging of the body remain unanswered.
The life of each of us has a gate through which it marks its beginning. The door is conceiving and then childbirth. This is usually a triumphal gate, when we are welcomed by the joy of our relatives and often by making a loud cry, we mark our presence. With her borders childhood, and later youth, that beautiful period of "conquering and acquiring the world around us."
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The second gate, and we shudder to cross - it is the gate of death. Where our further journey is going and whether it exists at all, it has been a problem for us since the dawn of human history. The old age is directly connected with this gate, and probably that is why it is a period of life that raises anxiety in many people. Hence come the dreams of humanity about eternal life, about immortality. We understand this concept of eternity vaguely and at most intuitively. Kotarbiński believes that the vastness of eternity transcends all limits of human cognition, and if so, it can not be the real object of desire. This great Polish philosopher, to illustrate this impossibility of imagining the concept of eternity, quotes the Hindu legend.
At the top of the diamond mountain, higher than the Himalayas, a small bird arrives every year and cleans its soft spout against the diamond. Well, when that bird in this way will erase the whole mountain, then the first second of eternity will pass.
Thus, not the very finitude of life grieves, but its shortness, measured by the ratio to the desired longevity.And that old age is a stage of life leading to its end, which is why it is so reluctantly greeted by many.
The problem of "relative immortality" is known, however, in nature and quite well described by scientists. Kunicki-Goldfinger in his work Fri. Heritage and the future states:
Death is the price that the highest organized beings pay for their evolution. Awareness of death is the price a person pays for the evolution of his intellect ...
The aging process is still a phenomenon little known, and still interesting to philosophers, humanists and biologists due to the fact that it is a universal process affecting all living multicellular organisms. Despite the fact that in the history of science, many scholars have tried to explore the nature and biological significance of the aging process, in fact, a modern approach in this type of research dates back to several decades.
Biology clearly proves that death at the end of aging is inevitable and that it is itself the fruit of evolution. It should also be remembered that single-celled organisms (Prokaryotes) are actually immortal. Each of these individuals is divided into the next two, identical with it. Natural death, understood as the end of an individual's existence, independent of random external factors, is a term that does not describe the phenomenon of their existence. The same applies to the simplest, but slightly more complex organisms (Eukaryota). The phenomenon of natural death appeared during the evolution together with the individualization of the living system and the increase of the meaning of sexual reproduction. Generations, after producing gametes and separated them by merging, and then genetic recombination during the divisions of the embryo, give way to the next - their successors.
The universality of the aging process causes that many phenomena usually described in studies of lower organisms, similar to (Eukaryota) can be referred to higher, more diverse organisms, and even to humans. So we pay for humanity by passing away. And all efforts to change it end in disappointment only. Just recall the story of Titonos. At the end of each night the rosary Eos (Jutrzenka) - ornamented with a saffron robe, beautiful daughter Hyperion, rises from her bed in the east of the sky, rides a chariot drawn by a pair of steeds and goes to Olympus to announce the arrival of her brother, the divine Helios. After his arrival, both of them embark on a heavenly journey to the western shores of the ocean. From the height of the sky, she could see exactly what was happening on earth. She got to know all human matters; and good and bad deeds. Amazed by iniquities, disappointed by the human tribe she decided not to be interested in these imperfect beings. Once, however, she noticed a beautiful young man on the ground, which was also characterized by elegant simplicity, nobility and impeccable character. From that day on she watched him constantly, and her admiration did not diminish, only strengthened. Titonos, because that's what he's talking about, he did not even realize he was being watched so closely from high heaven. At the end, Eos fell in love with the young man and did not want to spend a moment without him. She begged divine father Zeus to allow her to marry Titonos, and he gave him immortality. With this wonderful gift she introduced herself to the young man, and that she was one of the most beautiful goddesses, no wonder that she fell in love with him at first sight. Their common life was a series of fun, frolics and happiness. It would seem that such a state would last forever, because the young wife had guaranteed immortality.
Unfortunately, Eos, having asked for the gift of eternal life for Titonos, forgot to ask for eternal youth. So, after some time, our protagonist grew old, became gray and became more and more shriveled. His members lost their strength and his previous vigor passed away somewhere. The voice lost its softness, and the speech became harsh and raspy. He became grumpy and impatient. When Eos finally had enough to nurture the old man, she locked him in her bedroom and turned it into a cicada.
Talking and writing about old age, it was confused and to this day two essentially different states are mistaken: normal old age and old age burdened with all possible diseases in this period. In the face of frequent diseases, children are able to be understanding and patient.And only colds and diseases similar to them can make a child appear several times a year. The mortality of children was terrifying in the past - almost every third born child died in a few years. The fear of diseases appearing in old age and their consequence - death - has been dangerous and it still happens mainly because we immediately imagine our own old age and our own end.
Perhaps that is why, from the very beginning of time, we have been seeing frequent "jeremiades" about bad old age. Have you always thought so? What has changed over the centuries in the perception of old age, especially someone else's? For their own people usually meditated only when they got them.
One of the oldest documents from four and a half thousand years ago is the complaint about the old age of Pteh-hotepa, the vizier of Pharaoh Isesi. This complaint, repeated later by billions of creatures, reads:
How unbearable is the fate of an old man! He weakens every day; his vision deteriorates, his ears stop hearing, his strength leaves him (...) he can not remember what happened yesterday. Old age is the greatest misfortune that can affect a person.
The psalmist's statement or the complaint of the old Euripides is similar in its overtone:
The measure of our years is seventy years
or when we're strong, eighty;
and most of them are hard work and vanity:
because they pass quickly, and we fly away.
Psalm 90 [89], 10.
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Doctor of Medicine Janusz Krzyżowski
Psychiatrist
Private office tel. 22 833 18 68
00-774Warszawa, Dolna 4 lok. 15
My youth is always nice - and old age is a burden
Bigger than the rock scrap Etna -
He is lying on his head - on the dark eyelid
He accuses me of the curtain
Euripides, Mad Heracles
Translation Zofia Cierniakowa
So what is old age? Sometimes it is referred to as the autumn of life, by analogy to the seasons, consecutively in life in nature. By associating with nature, we constantly experience this wonderful change of seasons. Landscapes change. Fields, meadows and mountains surprise with a variety of colors and shapes. The similarity of variability depending on the natural biological rhythms to changes in our lives is self-evident. After all, we are a part of this changing nature.
Man, however, thanks to self-awareness and reflection is different from the whole reality that surrounds him. He is the subject of these changes and their subject. Human life also in the spiritual dimension consists of successive, passing stages. Childhood, especially youth, should be a time when a person gradually learns to be a member of society. He implements the foundations and foundations of his life in his adulthood. After their implementation, old age should not be troublesome, when usually the storm of passion stops, and time serves for a more refreshing reflection and multiplies wisdom. This can be a time of successful social service. Cicero writes about it:
So say that old people can no longer take part in active life, it is as if to say that the helmsman is idle on the ship, because he sits calmly on the stern, holding the rudder in hand while others are moving, running around , they climb masts, they draw water. The old man, of course, does not do what only young people can do - but what he does is much more important and better. For truly great things are not done by physical force, speed or dexterity - they require prudence and a serious, mature decision.
And even if the old age of physical strength did not have it - no one requires it from her. Both laws and customs exempt our age from those activities where physical forces are necessary. "However - you say - there are many old people so infirm that they can not cope with any duties or ordinary requirements of life." This is true - it is, however, the result of poor health at all, not old age.
Even a hundred years ago, changes around us took place slowly.The world seemed stable and therefore reliable and understandable. Today, everything is transforming at such a pace that the habits, tastes and values assimilated in childhood after several decades do not work. Newsweek recently published research results that are shocking, eg only 23% of international corporation directors were able to explain what a modem is. This question did not cause trouble for 98% of students in the sixth grade. The same number of thirteen-year-olds knew what the Internet is. This concept was known to only 68% of corporate managers, and every fifth was convinced that the Internet is part of Microsoft. The difficulty of adapting to changes means that the environment becomes increasingly alien, incomprehensible, irritating and sometimes sinister to older people. The sense of alienation grows with age. Old age ceased to be a symbol of competence, experience, treasury of wisdom or knowledge in the eyes of younger generations. Elderly people, and this applies even to fifty-year-olds, are treated indulgently, kindly tolerated, rather than listened to in the service.
The technological criteria are currently used to differentiate between youth and old age. It is believed that the old one is losing the ability to adapt to new conditions.
In the past, old people were surrounded by deep respect. Ovid wrote that "once worshiped for the gray head". We will try to look at the current situation. In some traditional societies, old age is still respected, while in others it clearly has less respect. This usually takes place in societies focused on immediate human performance. There the age of old is often ignored, unless the elderly themselves take care of their economic independence earlier. And although some of the aphorists, like La Rochefoucauld, wrote: "The old men like to give good advice, to comfort themselves, they are not able to give bad examples" are skeptical about old age, let's stay on
