When I was a kid, although I was a little too old for Sesame Street, I got a kick out of it just the same. I enjoyed the programming and the Muppets and watching Miss Piggy take a round of Kermit. One day after watching Grover get made a fool of for mispelling hippopotamous, they showed a bit about raising elephants that struck me as quite remarkable. I have never forgotten it and lately I 've been thinking about it quite often. It's a common story and you've probably heard it many times yourselves but I never tire of it.. so maybe you won't either..

When you see an elephant in a circus, their size is amazing. They are massive creatures weighing thousands of pounds and yet for all their unstoppable power, they can be restrained by nothing but a thin rope they could snap with a tug. How then can such a small and obviously weak string keep such huge animals in check?

The answer is simple. They believe it can.

For the first five years of life, a heavy chain is tied around the young elephant's leg. Every time it tries to break free it is restrained. Five steps and it stops.. Five steps and it stops... for five years, over and over again any attempt it makes to break-free is prevented. Eventually the elephant stops trying and becomes conditioned. It develops self-imposed limitations on its behavior. This is why when the chain is switched to a flimsy rope and tied to a stake two feet in the ground, it does not occur to the animal that the situation has changed and it could easily escape.

It struck me as interesting then, and still does, to think how we are similarly conditioned as we develop. There are definitely things which are burnt into our 'wiring' as we grow, that unless something traumatic challenges our world view, we are extremely unlikely to change, even when to do so would be good for us and those around us. The hopelessness of doing anything about the problems of the aging process is a case in point.

We have been conditioned to accept that the ravages of aging are inevitable. We have seen aging ravage the ones we love as well as feeling its effects on our own bodies. A more fitting word I don't think describes it as it truly devours us. What better word can describe a process which reduces vibrant individuals to suffering shadows of their former selves who eventually welcome death as release from their misery and loneliness? One by one, they all fall. Psychologically, like the elephant, we have been taught through many examples that to even think to take a few more steps down our road in life is a hopeless case and not worth the attempt.

This rope has broken for me. I have ceased to believe that the suffering of aging and age-related disease is a process that cannot be significantly changed by modern science.

Yesterday I read about the development of an electrically conductive rubber metal, artificial sight, and brain implants to help the paralyzed control computers by thought alone. Today I read about how human antibodies, genetic therapies and viruses are being shown to be incredibly effective against aggressive cancers. I'm learning about tissue engineering to replace failing organs and gaping a the progress being made in the development of completely artificial organs to replace the heart, pancreas and liver and others. Incredibly, today I read how the magnetic force generated by a single spinning electron has been measured. A S-I-N-G-L-E electron. One. Une. This is a totally mind-bending achievement. We are no longer in Kansas anymore when it comes to the potential of these technologies and cannot use the past as any kind of predictor of what the future of medicine is going to be.

We all know about puzzle building, and we all know that as things progress, the pieces become easier to fit, and sometimes the puzzle seems to assemble itself, as if it wants to 'become'. This is the stage we are at in many areas of science, with discoveries in all areas feeding off each other. This is the true difference between the concept of science from our youth, and the new situation we are faced with today. As more and more evidence accumulates, it will be difficult to deny the hope that will rise in the hearts of the people of the world for a better future for themselves and their children. Perhaps a world with HEALTHY, active and productive individuals who have lived a century or more might have a slightly different character than the one we experience today because for all the beauty in the world.. I think our species could do with a facelift.

Don't be an elephant, break your conditioning.