Being in denial is like having a blind spot in your car—you need a
rearview mirror and some competence to use it or you’ll end up having a
million accidents that are always someone else’s fault (usually the
person driving behind you!).

Too
many of us are growing older and thinking that age happens ‘to us’. I
think we need a rearview mirror that shows us our blind spots around
age and aging.

For ‘who we are’ doesn’t get any older—even when our bodies change.

More on rearview mirrors

Being objective about yourself is extremely difficult and rare.
That’s why denial is normal, even inevitable. The real problem happens
when you deny that you are in denial. That’s when you can begin to
believe your own point of view, which can lead to a terrible case of
self-righteousness. So how do you know you are in denial when you are in denial?

I’ve
learned through my own experience with various ‘isms’ that there is
only one possible way of knowing… and that is to