Understanding Aging: The Unseen Process : หน้า 67/263

2. A Flood or a Storm which carries away forest debris: In just the same way as a flash flood inundates a forest or a storm tears down branches and leaves in a forest and sweeps them away, leaving the debris somewhere else — only when the flood has subsided or the storm has passed can people see the debris left behind by the flood and know that the forest has been damaged by that flood or storm. In just the same way, it is only when we see someone losing their teeth, with hollow cheeks, sunken eyeballs, deaf ears, a delapidated body, grey hair and wrinkled, baggy skin that we realize that aging has done its work. In conclusion, we can say that in general, we don’t realize that aging is affecting us the whole of the time, whether we are awake or asleep. We only realize when the results of aging’s work become manifest to the naked eye. Another characteristic of aging is that it gradually increases the time that has elapsed in our lives and reduces the time left to go until our death. Just like the shuttle of the weaver advances the woof, adding to the woven cloth but detracting from the unwoven warp, aging takes away the remaining years of our life, adding them to the years elapsed. If a person had a lifespan of a hundred years, when a day passes, they have one less day to go until their hundred years is up. When a month passes, they have one less month to go until their hundred years is up. When a year passes, they have one less year to go until their hundred years is up (they have only 99 years left to go.) In conclusion aging drives all living beings relentlessly towards their dying day — all the way from the day of their birth we are already counting down to the day of our death. Furthermore, aging causes the deterioration and clouding