Opus 2024-309: Expiration Date

Every once in a while my wife will see someone on the news or a video that is closing in on the hundred year mark.  Jimmy Carter has reached that benchmark.  They may be in their 90s, and she will say something to the effect that she doesn’t want to live that long.  We tend to look at people at that age through the lenses of our glasses.  We watched them tottering along.  They seem weak and out of control and maybe they are.  But again we tend to look at it through our experience and our desires.

How do they feel about it?  I’m guessing that it’s going to vary with each individual.  If they have invested there life wisely, and if God has blessed them in the right ways, then they are surrounded by grandchildren and great grandchildren and their oatmeal is done right.  In another words, life is good.  Just because you’re old and can’t move as fast doesn’t mean that you can’t move it all.  It may take you longer.  You may need help.  But you can still get where you want to go.

I think of cans of food that have expiration dates printed on them.  Sometimes that is an important date to consider.  Milk go bad quickly if not kept cold.  However, a can of beans may last for 10 or 15 years past when they say it’s going bad.  You never know until you open the can.  There may be some indicators, such as bending or bulging, but what do you do with a can that looks fine?  The same is true of our lives.

The Bible seems to say that 70 years is what we should expect.

(Psa 90:10 KJV)  The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

It says that if you’re strong you can count on 80 years.  It seems to me like there’s someplace where it mentions 120.  I believe Moses lived 130 years.

So what is your expiration date?  I have no idea what mine is.  One of the great things about getting to my age as I am already passed 70 year mark and as far as I know still cooking on all cylinders.  Do you cook on cylinders?  However you want to say it I’m still able to get up without help, dress myself, fix my meals, and do what shopping I need to do.  That’s what I call exciting living at this point

I’m not sure when my expiration date is.  I may be the last to know.  I am ready.  I hope you are too.

homo unius libri

Opus 2023-038: Ode to Old: Goals

One of the data points I have seen repeated recently is that there has been a decline in life expectancy in the United States.  If my memory serves me, it is most pronounced in white men.  Since there are many factors involved in how long you live, it is not a statistic that worries me too much.  It could simply be a case of the hippie generation reaching the age when their early experiments with drugs and alcohol can no longer be denied.  It could be a genetic factor related to recent surges in immigration.  It could be a fluke.

Like many statistical announcements we need to keep in mind that the average over a large population has no real relevance to you as an individual.  If I live in a community of alcoholics and hear that the incidence of liver disease is skyrocketing I don’t worry for myself if I don’t drink.  I might put more into trying to influence my friends but the numbers are meaningless because of my life choices.

So how long should we expect to live?  One of the expressions that has been around for a long time is three-score and ten, or seventy years.  I don’t know if it is in other cultures but it is found in the Bible.  I have already achieved three-score and ten.  That seems to be the basic promise given for life span.  As one old gentleman said, “I am now living on borrowed time.”

The next is four-score.  It is found in the same verse as the 70.

(Psa 90:10 KJV)  The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

I am not sure what is involved in this strength but I am already half way between 70 and 80.  If I make it to that we will go for 120.

(Gen 6:3 KJV)  And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

This last one was given during the time when people had been living hundreds of years.  I am not trying to announce promises or establish a doctrine of age but it is interesting.

My hope is that I will go the same way my dad went, in the middle of the night with no signs of stress.  And I am ready.  Any time, Lord.

homo unius libri