For me, the big news last year was former U.S. president Jimmy Carter reaching the age of 100. He was a man who couldn’t stop being magnificent.
Medical science is filling baby boomers’ heads with the crazy idea that if you can make it to 80 years of age, you have a good chance of reaching 90 or even 100, without giving us a chance to get a second opinion.
According to U.S. federal health officials, the number of Americans aged 100 and older has increased 44 percent since 2000. Sounds like immortality. But that only means that the ten of us who formerly made it to 100 have become 14 and a half. Not that big a deal, especially if you’re the half.
All this sounds encouraging and surely prompts people to be more conscientious about their lifestyle. But have you ever considered what people at age 100 look like? It could make you think twice. I mean, there is a point where you see grandma peeking out from her osteoporosis, and you choose to smile and wave to her at a distance.
I have always thought 80 is a fair and sociable timeframe for winding down the party (84 for women – the only time we gentlemen get to go first). It wasn’t that long ago when our stooped, asthmatic Victorian forbears seldom lived past 40. (Who could blame them, given the head lice and lack of indoor plumbing?)
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