Not Quite Immortal

Not Quite Immortal

   It seemed ironic that not long after posting the brief bits on my views of retirement and making one feel older, the October issue of The Atlantic arrived with the cover story The New Science of Old Age by contributing editor, Greg Easterbrook.  His article posed many questions (some on retirement) but basically highlighted data that shows our longevity continuing to climb with the goal of reaching 100 quite likely by the end of the century.  But what I felt was more interesting is that contrary to some of the summations of Jared Diamond's book, Guns, Germs and Steel, such things as natural disasters, plagues and war and geography seem to have little effect on reducing this steady climb. "The life-expectancy elevator has for nearly two centuries risen about three months a year, despite two world wars, the 1918 influenza pandemic, the AIDS epidemic, and the global population growing sevenfold--the latter deceptively important, because crowded conditions are assumed to more readily communicate disease."  Despite all these factors, by 2050, the article estimates, the average "American life expectancy at birth will be 88 years."

   One factor trying to inhibit this growth, however, is our bodies natural tendency to shut down, especially in the repair department.  Our bones continue to shed old cells and produce new ones (our face and skull are completely replaced every 10 years);  but as we age, the shedding continues but the production of replacement cells can't keep up (thus, the "shrinking" so many of the elderly complain about...don't laugh, my recent physical showed me nearly half an inch shorter than 2 years ago, all at the ripe old age of 60).  Researchers are looking into whether longevity is inherited and if so, what genes are responsible and can they be sectioned out and replicated;  so far, the results are disappointing (the most recent gift catalog from National Geographic does feature a holiday present of sequencing your DNA* for just $199, if you're interested).

   Eat more veggies, cut down the calories, take fish oil, avoid coffee and red meat, don't get cancer (indeed, the shark cartilage fad, started because it was believed that sharks don't get cancer, proved false and depleted our shark population be the millions), antioxidants...researchers are feeling that those little changes actually make little difference to one's lifespan (perhaps 3 years added if cancer were eliminated, according to one professor of public health).  Other factors seem to make more of an overall change--less homicides, cleaner air, better water, warmer weather, less smoking and drinking.

   What was also interesting in the article was another conclusion that "society is dominated by the old--old political leaders, old judges."  The average age of Congress is now 57 (62 for Senators) and most incumbents don't want to leave.  Estimates are that those 85 and older (now talking about the general population) may jump fivefold by 2050 meaning that Social Security and Medicare will be hit even more (members of Congress are not on either system so have no personal stake in the expected shortfall).  In other words, my earlier postings on retirement might be moot...refinance that home for 30 years when you're 60?  Banks are now open to doing so (some friends of ours did just that).
  
   The question now becomes, would you want to live to 100?  Mental as well as physical changes would likely occur naturally, and of course, your answer would likely vary depending on your age.  But as the article also concluded, "older people...report a greater sense of well-being than the young and middle-aged do.  By the latter phases of life, material and romantic desires have been attained or given up on; passions have cooled; and, for most, a rich store of memories has been compiled...what's in the mind matters more than what you own."

   So we jump back to retiring "successfully."  This doesn't have to mean financially. It could simply mean having a circle of friends and family (and animals)...and time.  Time to sort through what it is that matters without the distractions.  For some, just surviving day to day is what matters, getting out of a village being bombed, or finding enough to eat and stay warm and stay healthy.  But for those of us lucky enough to not have those crises, aging and retirement is the time of reflection, not only on the "clock ticking" I alluded to earlier, but to one's looking back and then using that view to move forward with good intentions.

   My friend came home from the Camino walk in Spain, his boots falling apart just shy of halfway through.  Yet what he returned with was more than he expected:  The Spanish love their kids. their old, their dogs and bread.  I have left my wallet on the bed while I showered.....no problem.  I have left my passport on the desk, to have it returned several times.  Just last night my walking poles were brought to me from a block away.  I wanted to know how I was tracked down but there was this language thing that kept getting in the way of explanations.  But a funny thing was starting to happen to my mind, I started to think more about home then I did the Camino.  My friends, I was getting home sick.....I want my kids, my grandkids, my home, and most of all my wife.  As I walked I thought more of sitting in the back yard at even-tide then I did of all the history I was passing thru and I will tell you it was volumes. The Camino absolutely strips you of any pretense of who you are or what you might think you are. Then what enters is the true spirit of mankind.  I have memories to last a life time.  Stories for a hundred camp fires.  It's hard to explain but I now know exactly who I am, what it is I love, what it is that is important to me and what I can actually do with out.  

   Well said, well thought out...retirement can do that, but so can life.  You're only as old as you feel, as the saying goes.  But the key word there might be the word feel.  “Life is a journey, not a destination,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson.  “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”

*The DNA sequencing is for ancestral purposes and not for medical ones, according to the offer...