Self-Centered Aging versus Selfless Aging
When I was a teenager stepping slowly into adulthood, I often wondered what truly happens when one becomes old. Life, as I observed it, appeared to follow a fixed and relentless trajectory—education, job, marriage, family, possessions. Alongside this ran an unspoken but powerful current of comparison: first with classmates and colleagues, later with cousins, siblings, and finally with those closest to us. The race never paused. There was no finish line, only shifting reference points. During this long and breathless run, I held onto a quiet hope. I believed that with age and experience, people would eventually see the futility of endlessly amassing wealth and status. I imagined that maturity would bring a widening of vision—that people would recognize real wealth in humane relationships, empathy, and a deeper connection with the world beyond themselves. What I witnessed instead was deeply unsettling. Many of those I observed—people entering their sixties, seventies, eighties, and...