Dr. Ellen Langer

Some people then take themselves out of the world because they're afraid of falling again.

And I remember in this, I was consulting this nursing home many years ago, and this woman who was, I was in the director's office, and this woman who was about,

I'd say she was about 85 or whatever, visiting her sister who was 90.

And she was bragging.

She said, you know, my sister wanted me to bring tongues to help her put on her underwear by herself.

But I wasn't going to do it because she could fall.

And then I chimed in, which I probably shouldn't, and I said, you know, we can prevent her from falling and burning herself or anything else that happens to people in the course of a lifetime.

We can induce a semi-comatose state, and then she'll be perfectly fine.

accident-free and so on.

So in some sense, it may seem silly, but some part of being human is the possibility of some of these things happening.

And recognizing that you can get yourself through it in some of the ways we've already discussed.

I'm not suggesting that we all just throw caution to the wind,

But I think a life that provides no opportunity for any of these things to happen, it wouldn't be one that I would choose for myself.

So let me tell you.

Yeah.

What people want to do, should be doing, is making the moment matter.

And that whatever they're doing, they should enjoy doing it, rather than doing it for some end.

You know, so that I hate exercising, but I'm going to exercise so I live longer.

No.

And there are people who exercise and then end up having heart attacks because of the exercise.