Deb, if your friend does not even understand your interest in Seth, it is not surprising that she finds her age a problem. There is quite likely an underlying fear of death there.
Yes, either fear or she has bought into the American (or Western, in general?) concepts on aging. A throw-away society. With material goods, its often cheaper to replace something than repair it. Not much is valued. I see car junkyards filled to the brim with seemingly new cars, and I have memories of my dad constantly trying to keep our old junker running, always tinkering under the hood. Thanks to Descartes, Newton, et al. WE tend to be seen as machines, I think.
More Seth on age:
The Way Toward Health, Chapter 5:
Many people believe fervently that with approaching age they will meet a steady, disastrous deterioration in which the senses and the mind will be dull, and the body, stricken with disease, will lose all of its vigor and aging.
Many young people believe such nonsense, and therefore THEY SET THEMSELVES UP to meet the very conditions they fear.
The mind grows wiser with age WHEN IT IS ALLOWED TO DO SO. There is even an acceleration of thought and inspiration, much like that experienced in the adolescent years, that suddenly brings a new understanding to the aged individual, and provides an impetus that should help the person to achieve greater comprehension—a comprehension that should QUELL all fears of death.
The Way Toward Health, Chapter 10:
It is taken for granted that all mental, physical, spiritual and emotional satisfactions become lesser with advancing age. [...] It is often considered scandalous to even imagine sexual activity after the age of even 40 or 50.
There are very definite, excellent side-effects of growing older, that we will also discuss in this book — but here I want to assure the reader that basically speaking there are no diseases brought about by old age alone (intently).
Dreams, Evolution 1, Chapter 5 Session 902:
In that light, the senses do not fade. Age alone never brought about any loss of physical agility, or of mental ability, or of desire.
In your society age has almost been considered a dishonorable state. Beliefs about the dishonor of age often cause people to make the decision—sometimes quite consciously—to bring their own lives to an end before the so-called threshold is reached. Whenever, however, the species needs the accumulated experience of its own older members, that situation is almost instantly reversed and people live longer.
NoPR Chapter 13: Session 651:
Your beliefs about age, like everything else, will form your experience, and your mass beliefs will affect your civilization. With the current concepts held by your society, men and women fear old age from the time of youth. If young adulthood is considered the epitome of life, blessedness, and success, then old age is viewed as the opposite — a time of failure and decay.
NoPR Chapter 15: Session 656:
In many “native” cultures an individual is not considered in terms of his age at all, and the numbering of years is regarded as insignificant. In fact, a man may not know his age as you think of it. It would do you all good — young, middle-aged and old alike — to forget the number of your years, because in your culture so many beliefs are limiting in those ways. Youth is denied its wisdom and old age is denied its joy.
As creatures you are born young and grow older. Yet the animals, as creatures, are not as limited in their experience in that regard. They have no beliefs in old age that automatically shut down their abilities; so left alone, while they do physically die as all creatures must in those terms, they do not deteriorate in the same way.