The "Extraordinary Ages Of Ordinary People" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading about a woman by the name of Jeanne Calment who was born in 1875 in Arles, France.  Nothing special about that fact except as I read on I found she died in 1997.  Now if you care to figure that out for yourself you will find that she lived to be 122 years old.  She is the oldest person to have ever lived!  How much longer do you expect to live?  I realize that how many more years depends upon the age that you are today.  But, as I read on I found that my three grandchildren who are 12, 13 and 15 years of age at present have a 50-50 chance to live to be over 100 years old.  Also read that someone alive today will be the first person to reach the age of 150 years old!!  Could it be you?  If you are as old as I am that's not going to happen, but perhaps one of my grandchildren or someone who is a toddler may still be alive in 2150.  So, the younger generations need to begin to prepare to live to be over 100 or even 150.  My wife and I will celebrate our 50th Wedding Anniversary this month and I'm not so sure we'll make it to our 75th Anniversary, but that may be a common occurrence in the future.  Then again, maybe people won't get married until they are in their 50s and have children until they are in their 60s.  Hey, you heard it here for the first time I'll bet.  The current and future generations will have to begin to come up with a new mindset around aging and solutions to help them live longer.  What's going to happen when we have conquered cancer?  My wife recently told me about a pill that you take that will prevent uterine cancer.  If there had been a pill to take to prevent prostate cancer I certainly would have taken it and saved myself the worry and rehab from my recent bout with the disease.  And, will you have to work until you are 100 before you will be able to claim Medicare benefits and Social Security?  

In the United States today the fastest growing age group are those who are over 85 years of age.  And, the second fastest growing age group are those who are 100 and over.  Every day when I grab the morning paper I check out the obituaries to see if I recognize any names or photographs.  Then I check the ages of those who have died.  I know its rather morbid that I do that, but hey, I have to see whom to cross off my Christmas card list and I'm sure you'll do it to when you're 70 or older.  In another 20 years I'll bet people won't be checking out the obit page until they are 80 or more.  Now, there are three areas that need to be addressed before everyone will live to be 150.  First, they'll have to stop eating the same things they eat today.  The fast food is going to have to go as well as the soda and sweets.  Everyone is going to have to have a Fitbit that will shock them senseless if the so much as think about eating something with sugar in it.  And, clothes companies will no longer be making anything larger than extra-large size so you'll have to stop eating or wear a towel.  It won't be uncommon to work until you are 95 years old and you're going to have to do a better job of managing your money during your younger years (50-90).  And people are going to have to realize that living to be 150 isn't unusual.  Everyone will have to get rid of the outdated ideas about aging and create some new solutions to help the aging process.  Products that are made to last a lifetime will have to be made better.  A better way to grow food supplies will have to be devised since there will be less land on which to grow it since all the extra people will take up more space.  Can you imagine transportation in the future.  Many seniors today are beginning to lose their driving skills and these people will be what is considered middle-age in the near future.  Heavens, I'm getting more scared as I think of all the things that are going to have to be changed.  My poor grandchildren!!  I'm sitting here by my computer thinking what they may be sitting in front of 100 years from now.  I can't even imagine it!!  So ... good luck to all of you with the aging problem.  I''ll have checked out long before 2150!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.