I awoke today preoccupied with thoughts about aging and its place in a life—Thoughts about aging as a phenomenon and as my experience and how it came on me as a surprise. I then moved to an obvious question: When does aging begin? (I know well enough when it ends.) My assumption is that it’s primarily a physical process with each step linked to mental accompaniments: emotions, interpretations, anxieties... I never think of our physical and mental dimensions as unlinked but one or the other may take the lead according to situation. With aging, it seems to me clear that it is body first, even if ultimately it turns out that feelings and...

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