I think one grows old because we don’t have anything else to do. I think much of growing old is because we think about how old we are. I think we really should quit observing birthdays at age 70; unless, we just reset the counter to about 12. Conversations seem to center around grandkids and visits to doctors. Sometimes there will be ‘conversations’ about a favorite TV show.
At age 70 everyone has a wealth of experience that must be passed on to the young. To me now, young is anyone my daughters’ age or younger. Often we hear, “I wish I were 21 and knew what I know now.” So, why not? By 70 one often has resources to do the things we wish we had done when we were 21; travel, read, and so on.
If we don’t have those resources, we still have knowledge(wisdom) to pass to the young so they will arrive at 70 in better shape; physically and fiscally than we did.
Conversation adds more to that. Here in reality we live only one life in our world on our timeline. However, we can add at least one more life to someone by relating ours to them(oh yes, and theirs to us).
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons