Miami Student

Issue date: 4/20/07 Section: OpEd Page

As the popular legend goes, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León discovered mainland Florida in 1513 in search of what natives had told him was the Fountain of Youth. The historical accuracy of this famous story is now questioned, but both the Old and New World had tales of waters making people ageless and immune to death years before de Leon's voyage to Florida.

Nearly 500 years later and mankind is still searching for the premise behind the Fountain of Youth. Infomercials invade our living rooms through the television screens and proclaim that the secret to aging has been found in the form of mysterious creams applied to the face twice daily. Dr. Sherwin Nuland, professor of surgery at Yale Medical School and author of The Art of Aging suggests that people frown upon the natural process of aging because it opens their eyes to the definite limits of life and so begins everyone's quest to find the exuberance and refreshing feeling of youth - a quest that is doomed to end in certain disappointment.

But the aging process of all of us is as certain as the sun shining in the sky. All of us might as well look to the future with delight and a sense of happiness that tomorrow is going to be better than today. A healthy dose of optimism is what has guided the history of the United States and, I would argue, has made us the great beacon of freedom in the world that our country is today. On an individual level, however, optimism for the future is tempered by the fear of death and the somber realization that one day we will not be here. Amidst modern medical technologies and the greatest average life expectancy in the world to date, death still dwells all around us and Fountain of Youth remains forever illusive. And so the quest becomes not a search for the Fountain of Youth, but a search for conquering the fear of death.

The fear of the unknown characterizes most fear in our daily lives. The fear of going off to college, starting a new job, changing majors, and trying the mysterious meat dish th the dining hall. Yet the supreme unknown we all will face is death. None of us know when our time is up. So what is the secret to facing it? I think I found the secret in a hospital bed at Lakewood Hospital two weeks ago.

My 92-year-old grandmother had complicated surgery and was still hooked up to tubes and an IV when I came home Easter Weekend to visit her in the hospital. My family had prepared for me an image of my grandmother that I was not used to. The mental image of my grandmother, forever carved in my mind, is an incredibly strong woman who graduated from college at a time when women were destined for domestic life. But when I entered the hospital room, I was greeted with the face I was accustomed to. My grandmother was perked up in a chair, eating Jell-O and talking about her hospital roommate who always whispers.

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