Dick Van Dyke is proof that wisdom comes with age.
The longtime entertainer, who turned 100 earlier this month, is not scared of dying despite his keen awareness of his mortality.
Appearing on “Good Morning America” Friday, Van Dyke confessed that while he does “think about” death, he’s just “not afraid of it.”
“Death doesn’t really frighten me,” he said, “although I’d like a lot more life!”
According to the “Dick Van Dyke Show” star, “some people are afraid of death” because they think the person dying is “aware” of what’s happening.
Admittedly, he has “no idea” what happens when people die, but he chooses not to dwell on it.
Last month, the actor reflected on aging in an essay published by the Sunday Times.
“It’s frustrating to feel diminished in the world, physically and socially,” he wrote.
Van Dyke, who lives in Malibu, Calif., explained that he had recently had to turn down gigs in New York and Chicago because traveling is simply too much for him these days.
“Almost all of my visiting with folks has to happen at my house,” he shared, referring to himself as “a stooper, a shuffler and a teeterer.”
“I have feet problems and I go supine as often as is politely possible,” he quipped, adding, “My sight is so bad now that origami is out of the question. I have trouble following group conversations and complain frequently about my hearing aids.”
Despite his physical setbacks, the comedian — who quit drinking and smoking in his 50s — “still [tries] to hit the gym three times a week.”
Van Dyke made sure to note that he feels young and alive in mind and soul because he actively makes that choice.
“I’ve made it to 99 in no small part because I have stubbornly refused to give into the bad stuff in life: failures and defeats, personal losses, loneliness and bitterness, the physical and emotional pains of aging,” he explained.
“That stuff is real but I have not let it define me. Instead, for the vast majority of my years, I have been in what I can only describe as a full-on bear hug with the experience of living. Being alive has been doing life — not like a job but rather like a giant playground.”
Van Dyke — who still sings with an a cappella group — also credited his 54-year-old wife, Arlene Silver, with keeping him from “wither[ing] away into a hermetic grouch.”
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