VISITORS
Our lives are a lot like the life cycle of a tree: we are born, we grow, we bloom, we bear fruit, and finally we die. As much as we human beings like to think of ourselves as immortal beings, we know that reality is not quite like that. One day, we will perish…
When we are young and healthy, we think we are capable of doing anything. And, practically, we are. We can run, jump, play sports, go hiking, climb mountains, venture into exotic places, eat curious dishes, travel to beautiful places, and marvel at everything the world has to offer us. The possibilities are endless and the future always seems to smile at us. It’s no wonder that this is the happiest phase of life, making old people envious of other, more distant moments. Everyone wants to have vigor and health to make their dreams come true. The rejuvenation industry invests billions of dollars worldwide, trying to make people live healthy until they are at least a hundred years old.
Millionaires like Jeff Bezos and Peter Thiel finance, many times secretly, this youth industry. The goal, ambitious in its essence, not to say megalomaniacal, is to live forever. Or live longer.
With the arrival of maturity, around the age of forty, because at thirty we still think of ourselves as immortal creatures, we realize that our life experiences do not guarantee greater longevity and that we are not as strong as we had thought. This is a time of flourishing when we have already achieved the most important things in life: a house, a car, a good job, and a family. Of course, these achievements may vary according to what each person wants, but they constitute the most coveted goals in our Western society. They define the moment in which we look back and analyze our lives. The successes, the mistakes, what we leave behind, what we can find ahead, the friends we lost, the disagreements we resolved. It is a time to settle accounts with our thoughts and ideas.
The third act of life is old age, or what would be equivalent to autumn if we were trees. We lose our leaves and become naked before the world around us. This is when we become even more aware of our finitude or the finiteness of our bodies, according to some beliefs. If we believe that we are the body, then its end is our end. But if we have the belief that we are consciousness, we will continue on into other lives, living other experiences, forever.
