The "How Old is Old?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Watching an old episode of Family Feud with my grandkids and one of the families has reached the round at the end where they can win $20,000 or something like that.  One family member is asked 5 questions and they have 20 seconds to guess the most popular answers from 100 people who have already been asked the same 5 questions.  Then the other family member is asked the same 5 questions, only they get 25 seconds since the first family member probably took some of their answers and it will therefore make it harder.  Anyway, one of the questions asked was .... How old would you like to live to be?  First family member said 80 while the second member said 70.  Wow!  The second member looked to be in their mid-30s so 70 is a long ways off to them.  But to me ..... well, I just hope I have more than a year and a half left!  Then I got an email that dealt with "Living to 120 and Beyond: American's Views on Aging, Medical Advances and Radical Life Extension."  Interesting Pew Research article that made me think about all the positive and negative reasons for living to an outrageous age.  At the end of my first full year of writing this blog, I wrote my obituary.  Did you read it?  If not, I will tell you that I died the day I turned 100.  Celebrated my final day by watching Willard Scott show my photo on a jar of Smucker's Jam on the Today Show.  What are the chances of that happening?  Do I really hope or want that to happen.  I DON'T KNOW!!  I love to be active and at times I find it hard to accomplish that feat.  Years ago I could go for hours without sitting down for a rest.  Now, half a day is about all I can take standing on my legs.  Two back operations may have to turn into three in order to relieve the nerve pain I get with the half-day of standing.  Is that bad?  Not if it corrects the problem!  Can help me reach the average life expectancy age for men which is 76.2 years (average age for females is 81.0).  Given the option, most Americans would choose to live longer than the average age.  69% of American adults would like to live to be 79 to 100 years old.  Years ago someone who was in their 70s seemed old to me, but now it seems logical that I will get there very soon and now 100 seems old to me.  

The Pew Report said that a recent issue of National Geography magazine had a photo of a baby on the cover with the headline: "This Baby Will Live To Be 120."  What do you think?  Want to live to be 120?  The Pew Research Center reports that 56% of U.S. adults said "no," but 68% think that most other people would choose to do so.  My father died at age 87 and my mother died less than a year ago at the age of 90.  My reasoning goes like this:  my mom gave birth to me when she was 22 years old, so if I add those 22 years to my 68, I should live to at least 90 if I am going to carry on the tradition of the family, age-wise.   I have the genes!  Roughly 41 million Americans are 65 or older at present and make up about 13% of the population.  In 1900 that number was 4%, so you can see the advances in medical knowledge and treatments has grown tremendously.  By 2050, one-in-five Americans will be 65 or older, and at least 400,000 will live to be older than 100.  I also read that by 2050 most types of cancer will have been conquered.  Wow!!  Well, maybe my hopes of being able to continue to write my stories until 2050 may come true.  Just hope I haven't jinxed myself by claiming I will only last to 100.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - Days like today leave me with with a mortal feeling.  I just read in the newspaper today with great sadness of another classmate passing.  I may have to rethink the whole "How Old is Old" thing.