I confess to musing a bit more than usual about life these days. Especially mine. As I’ve mentioned too many times lately, I am 70 and 70, it seems, is a special number in history and literature. In the bible it is deemed the kingly number for reasons not clear to me since I do not read, study or even believe in the bible as ‘the word of God’. But I do, of course, accept that it is an old book with lots of wisdom and so, if the bible thinks 70 is a BIG deal, that is, at least, something, I suppose.
The bible also suggested that our natural lifespan was three score and ten or, in modern terms, seventy. Unless you are strong (psalm 90:10 – The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.). Translation: if you are strong, you are in the running to make 80.
Mind you, people have lived well beyond 100 and the number of centenarians is on the increase. On average, 8000 Canadians live to be 100 (that stat makes no sense, really. If they last a year and live to be 101 are they counted again? And again at 102?). Regardless, the stats suggest that, if we counted centenarians today, we would find about 8000 of them and, oddly, a disproportionate number in Nova Scotia.
Of course, for centenarians to be counted, a lot of them had to pass through their 80’s and nineties. So, the bible suggests 70, stats imply 100+ and the difference is thirty years or close to 40% difference. And I know dozens of people in their 80’s and nineties.
So….no one really knows how long we got, do they.? Thus the musing.
Well, Sal is a rock. She’s got great genes, lives healthy and is slim. All good indicators. As for me….? I am still pretty strong. Pretty healthy. If my current ‘doctor’s file’ is anything to go by, I am good for awhile. But, you know…? Things happen. Scooting in Thailand raised the risk bar for a couple of months, not to mention flying there in a giant aluminum tube chock-full to the brim with bacteria and germs. And one can get hit by a bus or fall out of a boat at any time. There are any number of options when it comes to accidentally checking out. And, as you get older, you become more aware of them. Excruciatingly so.
Your balance is not as good as it was. Nor is your concentration, muscles, bones, reflexes, reaction-times and things like that. We become more vulnerable as we age and we get increasingly more conscious of that. This year was a wake-up call for me.
Well, to be more accurate, I need more wake-up calls now. I am starting to nap, you see. I have found that getting up earlier is becoming more common for me and then getting tired half-way through the day is also more likely. So, nature is telling me to ‘split the day’ into more easily managed halves. I am listening.
Awareness of dangers and vulnerabilities, resting half-way through the day, diminishing work accomplished, fewer aspirations, less consumption, less desire to travel (OK, none!) and even more vegetables instead of steaks and burgers all make for a sense of going through a life/sea change, introspection, musing. “Hmmm…seems I am changing yet again….what next?”
I have no idea what the next ten years holds for us. On the face of it, we will be here putzing about, growing our garden and spoiling our grandchild while enjoying the surrounding natural beauty and maintaining a healthy lifestyle with plenty of wine for accompaniment. The thing is that life always throws curveballs and the next ten years so-pictured is likely the one vision that is guaranteed NOT to happen.
Jus’ sayin’……
Our Off the Grid Home 
Listen to the TED talks by Dan Buettner on the secret to living longer. I think you’ll find you likely will have plenty more time for your job list.
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He was interesting. Seemed to suggest that we were doing all the right things. That’s good. We definitely have the 5:00 o’clock wine thing down pat. We eat right. Work right. Move around just enough. Have friends. I have a a smidge of the faith-base-kinda-thing going on. Sal is 99% self-possessed and still has a bit of faith in me. So, she’s good.
I should maybe implement the 80% full rule. Sal already does.
His talk was comforting……still, one has to stop and muse now and then….contemplate one’s navel….consider one’s place in the giant scheme of things…..the reason ‘to get up in the morning’ as he put it.
My reason to get up in the morning is to learn something new, discover something, explore some aspect of something I had little or no knowledge of, to invent, create or dream up something….for me, if there is something new, I want to know about it. When it becomes routine, I want to change it. The good thing about OTG is that there is so much NOT routine that I will likely be kept interested for a long time to come.
But that is where Murphy and curveballs come in……
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No time for pessimism my friend seventy is the new fifty. Balance might become a problem but work on your core and no, absolutely no shuffling. You are lucky that you have self-efficiency and a brilliant partner. Banish all gloomy thought vampires, they suck one’s energy.
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Well, musing is not gloomy, it is contemplative. Mind you, there is a place for gloom in contemplation so I’ll give you that. I am not ‘blue’ so much as wondering. It feels like another milestone, a stepping stone without the next stone in sight. But, thanks for the support. I don’t need it yet but it is nice to know that I can find some if I need to.
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A centenarian study a few year back identified “clusters” of 100 year old people in various areas of the world.
Certain small areas in Japan, Nova Scotia, and eastern Europe.
Several similarities seem to be shared.
The centenarians seemed all to live simple lives, ate simple homegrown foods, worked physically for most of their lives, had rarely if ever travelled further than 50 miles from their place of birth.
The Fountain of Youth?
Perhaps.
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YIKES!! I traveled! Oh well, I am pretty sure those days are over so maybe I can catch up by staying put.
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Sounds like a good life, Dave old man. It seems to me that the good life is much easier to achieve than the good death. Just sayin’. I’m giving you a tip for your next post. 🙂 Always interesting to get different perspectives on such matters.
But yikes, it is getting closer. Can’t help that. It pays to be kind to the next person.
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That’s easy. The NEXT person is Sal. Easy being kind to her. But what, exactly, is the tip? Living good is easier than a good dying?
A good death is quick and painless just as you turn 100, preferably during bacchanalian orgy celebrating your birthday.
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There has been much discussion over here about what is considered a good death. But you sound like you have it covered already. 🙂
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Dylan Thomas wrote, “Do not go gentle into that good night.” But that good night is decades away Dave!
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I hope so. We’ll see. Regardless, I will not go gentle. I will kick up a fuss at the very least. And, I intend to come back for some serious haunting. So, be forewarned! Sal is already dreading it…..
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My mother, at 82, and setting out on yet another creative chapter of her life with the renovation of her new country abode in her fourth lifetime country of Mexico, tells me that having a nap, or two, each day, actually makes it seem as if there are twice as many (or more) days happening in what is left of one’s life. Food for thought Dave….
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Twice as many days!? Not bad. Hmmmmmm…..maybe two naps a day will make it seem even longer?
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Yes, that’s my Ma’s theory exactly! Two naps a day equals three waking-ups including the first one, equals three days in every one. I think….works for her!
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Wayne is a little ahead of you and I’m not far behind. We feel there are many more years for us up the lake. I never had good balance so that’s nothing new to me. – Margy
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It’s not about that so much…..it’s just about awareness, a sense of passing time, milestones…… inevitablilty……life, eh?
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