Dr. Paul Conti

Walter's finding a value beyond himself.

He is being generative.

This isn't about manipulating the world so that he has some pleasure and enough food on the table.

This is about the best of humanness saying, I want to live this way.

And these are people who are not afraid of dying.

We can learn a lot from people who say in their 80s and not afraid of death.

And they can find peace.

They can have just peace.

There's freedom inside of themselves.

They can have contentment.

They can think about their lives, including things that haven't been the way that they want them to be, or tragedies.

And they can feel good about their lives and how they've made their lives.

They have the capacity for delight and getting excited about things.

This is how people age happily.

So shouldn't all of us be looking and saying, if there's a group of people who are really happy when they're in their 80s, say, or their 90s,

Let's look at that, right?

And when we look at that, lo and behold, we think they are living through their generative drive and they're not buying society's lies that say, feel over the hill and feel sad for yourself and just feel bad and talk about death all the time and lament.

The world is telling us to do that around us.

And when we deny that, that's someone who's happy, who realizes that he's 83 and isn't pretending he's likely to be here in 30 years.

But he gets it and is okay with that.