Imagine aging in a world where we spent less energy lamenting what is gone and more supporting what is present. Imagine doctors (and people generally) able to tolerate and talk about uncertainty. Imagine a society that accepted the facts of every life throughout history: we are born, we die, and in between, the lucky live by developing, changing, and aging. With this existential skill set—accessible to anyone, for free—we can be much more practically useful than we are now to people of all ages. Equally important, we will accept that sometimes we won’t be at all practically useful, and that the missing pragmatics need not equate with inutility unless we consider kindness and human connection useless.

Imagine aging in a world where we spent less energy lamenting what is gone and more supporting what is present. Imagine doctors (and people generally) able to tolerate and talk about uncertainty. Imagine a society that accepted the facts of every life throughout history: we are born, we die, and in between, the lucky live by developing, changing, and aging. With this existential skill set—accessible to anyone, for free—we can be much more practically useful than we are now to people of all ages. Equally important, we will accept that sometimes we won’t be at all practically useful, and that the missing pragmatics need not equate with inutility unless we consider kindness and human connection useless.