There is a lot of focus today on those behavioral components that allow a person to live a long life. This is because as we find more and more ways to add years to our lives through discoveries in modern science, it pushes us to extend the search out more and more and even to be able to imagine living forever and, if that is not possible, at least to be able to live spans of life that are considerably longer than the spans of life that we are presently living.
Certainly diet, exercise and rest are important positive components. Also, not smoking and not drinking to excess are important avoidance components. All of these are behaviors that, for the most part, we are in control of as individuals. But there is at least one form of behavior that has aspects over which we as individuals are not totally in control. I am talking about social interaction. As the category name suggests, we as individuals are only one part of the equation in terms of our participating in an activity that can prolong our lives. We need other individuals to want to participate with us and it has to be done in a supportive way. Whether it is a family relationship, a romance, an affair, a friendship, an acquaintanceship, a worker participation in an organization, in a business, in a government office, or a membership in a recreational club or in a secular or religious community – all these relationships can be important life-affirming aspects of who we are.
The alternative is solitude which, in moderation, can be rejuvenating, but which, in excess, results in social isolation. Which can be as lethal as poor diet, lack of exercise or lack of sleep. The five blue zone places which have large percentages of their population living past one hundred – Loma Linda, California; Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece; Ogliastra, Sardinia; and Okinawa, Japan – all create excellent opportunities for social interaction, particularly for their seniors. And yet it is not as if people suddenly reach a certain age and then start having intense social interactions. People in these communities develop and maintain active social connections throughout their lives.
In the States, we have these notions of self-reliance and independence, which may provide certain advantages to people in some situations. However, there is an excessive emphasis on these traits in the U.S. and this leads to people submerging themselves in an experiential vacuum from a very early age. They become so numb from this Calvinist American life narrative, that it becomes very difficult for them to absorb the organic stimulation from intense social engagement even when it becomes readily available. Excessive immersion in Calvinist American values, which promote extreme self-reliance and independence, results in people disconnecting from the social living environment which surrounds them and becoming like robots or zombies.
The question becomes not only how long can a person go on living, who is modeling himself as a robot or a zombie, but what truly is the quality of life that results from this kind of modeling. A robot or a zombie is tuned up in such a way that he is only capable of being receptive to defined discrete commands or directions. A human who becomes like a robot or a zombie is someone who primarily interacts with other humans in this way and has pretty much lost his capacity to respond to the flowing blendable continual organic stimulation that is the foundation of normal human interaction. Without being able to properly access this kind of stimulation, a human has very little chance of being able to properly bond with other humans, or to be able to ground himself in the organic aspects of his living environment. But, in order to be able to develop and maintain a full consciousness of himself and his external world living environment, which is essential in order to have a high-quality life narrative, a person needs to have this flowing blendable continual organic stimulation as a major component of his field of experience. This flowing blendable continual organic stimulation is important both for creating a sustained grounding in the external world as well as for giving a person the stuff with which he can make and preserve organic imprints on his field of experience. Having children, writing a book or something else that is published, creating a work of art or a piece of music, building a business, performing well in sports, music and theater, building all kinds of relationships with other people that leave memories. Preserved imprints are not only the basis for creating a surrogate immortality for after we are gone. They also amplify our sense of aliveness while we are still here through the positive imprints of approval that we receive from others for what we have done and for who we are. These imprints of approval make our lives seem more vibrant and, at the same time, help to extend them into the future.
© 2023 Laurence Mesirow
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