A Week and a Half of Word of the Week

And so the lexically obscure story weaving continues....

Excuse me if I bloviate, but I have a point to make:

In a world where senescence is often seen as the enemy rather than the progression of life and one in which the image of being like a carefree gamine has risen to be the apotheosis of what it means to be alive, it is not hard to see why middle-age crises are pervasive in the lives of the Western World. Ascending years is the megrim of most. People don't see the cycle of life as having a providential purpose of developing a soul, or sorting the wheat from the chaff, but rather something to be trivially subverted like a game, where cheating is seen as a virtue.

I would not like to conflate this the development of an image based society, which is often done. The fear of ageing and the excessive desire to not let people see the signs of ageing are two different phenomena in my opinion although the often appear in tandem.

The acceptance of ageing or death is possessed only by a nonpareil of life, someone sui generis, one of the self-effacing few, who can advance in years with growing strength and experience. Or perhaps also by the aged who have seen and accepted those blessed with birth are blessed with death, to which can conclude a fructuous life. Either way, they are those with less worry, and in the end may live longer.