[Lokutus]

a really long time?

By that I mean 70 plus years.

I have a vague memory of catching a comment a week, or two, ago on another board in a thread on trends in lifespans over history. Someone stated that humans probably weren't built to live as long as we do today. He was implying that most of us just start to get bored with it all after the first 5 or 6 decades.

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

According to some anthropologists, super fit hunter-gathrers lived to around 64 on average. Then after humanity switched to agricultural life, lifespans plummeted for the next 10,000 years. It's only been over the last few decades that we have seen average life spans move past 50 or 60 up to and beyond 75.

But that comment haunts me. Are we really meant to live 80 plus years?

Many older people that I know past 75 just seem to be putting in time waiting for death.

Let me ask you this. Given a choice in your early twenties, which would you take?:

a. A full life of success, adventure, and love but an early death at 55 or 60.

or

b. An average life that stretched to out to 85 with the last 25 years being rather dull uneventful ones other than having to endure the deterioration and disease of the body that accelerates after 60.

I am asking because we seem so hell-bent on prolonging things with all sorts of drugs and procedures. For what I ask? So that you can lie on your sofa for another decade watching day-time TV?

[Lokutus]

About 20 years ago a friend asked:

How long do you want to live?!

I dunno, maybe to 70.

Just 70!? I want to live to a 100!

I thought he was nuts for wanting to live that long. Will you even be able to walk after 80? Will you be able to survive a day without ingesting a cocktail of drugs which basically turn you into a zombie?

Let's think about quality and not just quantity.

[Kod]

Who wants to live to be 70?

...anyone who's 69.

[jimk]

Yeah I think you are right. Whether "success, adventure, and love" is exactly the perfect formula... must depend on how the terms are defined exactly. But what is the real point of living at all? Is the final score just how many years we hang on for?

A related question: for what kind of cause would you risk your life? To save the life of your child? To save the life of your sibling's child?

I was never in the military but it seems a lot of how that works is that soldiers build up a very strong cameraderie, brothers in arms. So soldiers risk their lives for each other. No doubt "spreading democracy" or "protecting the home land" are part of the equation too.

[Lokutus]

Let me share with you waht triggered this question. Two years ago my dad died at 80. Without getting into specifics, let's just say that the last 10 years of his life were hell for him due to a debilitating illness and my mother who acted as his care-taker. Over the past two years, I have been watching her fall apart. She's now 80. A year ago she tripped and fell at night and broke her arm. Now she has to go in for eye surgery. She has doctor's appointments every other week for various problem from her poor heart condition to ulcers to lord only knows what.

It's really painful watching this happen to people you love.

[Lokutus]

I noticed a number of Christian threads here today. So if there are any Christians reading this, I have a question for you:

Just what the hell has your god got against the old and frail? If anyone should be cut some slack, it's them.

[UIUCstudent01]

Your two options are loaded to all hell.

For some, living a nice dull, boring life and enjoying the quiet simple things is is success and adventure doesn't really exist.

You list 'adventure' in your short-life choice. I ask you what is your definition of adventure... it's different to each person. Sky-diving and extreme sports is not adventuresome in my opinion. Becoming a soldier/mercenary isn't either.

To some, it might be an adventure...

Success, adventure, and love is trying to live your life like a movie.

'Keep it real.'

[Lokutus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('UIUCstudent01', 'Y')our two options are loaded to all hell.

For some, living a nice dull, boring life and enjoying the quiet simple things is is success and adventure doesn't really exist.'Keep it real.'

[jimk]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lokutus', '
')It's really painful watching this happen to people you love.

[rogerhb]

Even when I'm old and frail I'm sure I'd want to still be knocking around, basically, because I'm so damned curious. I just always want to know what happens next....

...and of course the alternative is so, er, dark.

However I have fulfilled most of my goals in life, now just got to make sure the kids get to do the same.

[Ludi]

Many of my friends are older, in their 70s and 80s. A few have died recently, none were ready to die, they still had more to do with their lives.

[Kickinthegob]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lokutus', 'a') really long time?

[gnm]

I have a friend out in our valley here who is 82. He is still an active rancher and helps out all his neighbors with narious projects, contruction work etc.. Heck my Grandmother is 86 and doing well.

-G

[PrairieMule]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lokutus', 'I') noticed a number of Christian threads here today. So if there are any Christians reading this, I have a question for you:

Just what the hell has your god got against the old and frail? If anyone should be cut some slack, it's them.

[Lokutus]

Believers will go to any extremes to rationalize their faith.

If I were god, I would have designed my little "ant farm" differently.

For example, I would have asked myself if the phenomenon of aging is really necessary if the goal is to simply test my little critters' resolve to do the right thing.

Think about it, why couldn't he have designed the world so that you appear in the world as a fully formed adult with a fixed life expectancy of say 50 years, after which you die leaving a beautiful corpse?

One of the many places where the whole god business falls apart is in the area of suffering unrelated to immoral actions: aging, illness, plagues, tsunamis, earthquakes, car accidents, etc.

Why does you god feel such a need to pile it on? He's like a sadistic kid torturing ants with an exacto-knife.

What profit is it to your god to take a good man and make him sufferable terribly for the last ten years of his life and force his wife of over fifty years to watch him deteriorate into a state of complete and utter helplessness?

Oh I forgot.

"He works in mysterious ways."

You people need to look up "Stockholm Syndrome."

[SinisterBlueCat]

who said life is supposed to be great?

Personally, I expect it to be basically crappy, and then when it is great (rarely)...or even good, it is a bonus. I know this sounds not quite right, but I assure you it is way better than living a life of great expectations. I really relish and enjoy each moment that is great, instead of always sitting around saying...is this all?

[Lokutus]

Nobody here is expressing any unrealistic expectations about life. My question is why does the Christian god "put the boots" to people as they become old and frail. After 70 years of surviving the ordeal of of life, why doesn't he cut them a bit of slack?

Someone else in this thread mentioned the need for respecting our elders.

Touche!

So why shouldn't this Christian god do as well?

[SinisterBlueCat]

Lokutus, it is obvious that you are not a believer in the christian god...so what exactly is it you are looking for...other than for the chance to ridicule someone else for believing in what you consider to be an asshole god...?

[Lokutus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SinisterBlueCat', 'L')okutus, it is obvious that you are not a believer in the christian god...so what exactly is it you are looking for...other than for the chance to ridicule someone else for believing in what you consider to be an asshole god...?

[SinisterBlueCat]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lokutus', ' ')It had nothing to do with religion initially.