It has been said, “The first person to live to 150 has already been born.” This remains to be seen, and what life will look like in 150 years is far beyond my scope. But let’s assume that there may actually be some breakthrough or combination of them that would expand our normal healthspan. Maybe it will happen, maybe not. But I, for one, am not going to bet against it. True, I was promised, back in the ’60s, that we would all be zipping about in flying cars. I still don’t have one. That promise and others have made me skeptical that any real breakthrough in human biology will be happening anytime soon, but skeptical is not the same as denial.
I am aging and, slowly but surely, parts of me are not working as well as I would like them to. My preference would be for that not to occur, and I do my best to throw as much sand into the gears of aging as I can. But alas, it progresses. One reason for my effort, and vanity plays a role here, is that I feel rather strongly that there is a possibility, not yet probability, that we may be living a lot longer. The best way to capture that opportunity is to stay alive and put some effort into keeping the diseases of aging at bay as best we can. If I didn’t believe in any possibility of a longer, healthier life, there is a good chance there would be a lot more pizza and TV in my life than there is now.
There is the often used metaphor of human flight: it had never happened, therefore it could never happen. Nice quote for a college graduation, but there are things that, for all the effort humans put into them, we can’t do. Still, I am an optimist, perhaps because pessimism seems so dull. I was at another doctor today about my knee, preparing to get PRP injections, and he inquired about my activity level — his response included a couple of wows. The fact is, if I want to do the sort of sporty stuff I love, it requires some amount of focus and adherence. This sort of effort seems to nicely dovetail with the sort of things recommended to live healthier longer, with an obvious carve out for high-speed ski racing which, admittedly, is not always healthspan positive
Optimists tend to engage in behaviors that cause them to live longer and healthier. Pessimists less so, although the number of stubborn positive-behaving pessimists is legion. I rather like the positive-behaving pessimists; they make for good dinner companions. One can believe or not believe. One can also suspend disbelief and act as if. Making the bet that one will live longer, and preparing for it across the board — physically, emotionally, financially, building community, learning, and always staying open —seems the safer, more prudent way to look at things. Because we never know — maybe we will fly.
Onward and upward,
David
