Life extension is a gift

2021

I feel the longest-lived people (at least from my reading and viewing of those in the Blue Zones) have in general a zest and optimism in their life attitude. They are vivacious. They profess in interviews that they never expect to die. Maybe it’s survivorship bias, but having this expectation that life will be long does seem to add to one’s ability to age gracefully.

Feeling there is a literal deadline to our lives at about 80-100 of natural causes can both add meaning and a sense of urgency. For some people this time pressure may be deleterious. I think to how relentlessly I drove myself in the past, always feeling there wasn’t enough time, until finally I realized that life is longer than I thought (even absent life-extending technology).

If I had realized that my life would not be ending so soon, that I had so many decades ahead to learn things, I ironically would’ve aged less since I would’ve put myself under much less stress. I would love it if I had many more healthy years to pursue more careers, deepen my crafts, fall in love more, and keep learning new things. Practically speaking, if someone had 50 years to practice as a doctor and then 50 to be an engineer (and throw in 10 years as a touring musician ;) ), imagine what new fields and inventions could arise from being able to so deeply engage across fields. To draw from several hundred years or more of experiences! I love imagining this. I appreciate both the finitude of my life and welcome healthful extension of it as a bonus. I’m grateful for innovations in this field which give more people the choice to live longer.

^Reposted from a response I wrote in the online community I'm in which now takes most of my social bandwidth! And happily. 

Also, I write at least 1000 words daily it feels, yet am not doing daily blog posting because the process of logging in and the number of clicks needed to make a post is so cumbersome. I'll try to figure out how to streamline this process.