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Health & Fitness

Another Birthday…Who's Counting?

We heard recently that the first person who will live to be 150 is already alive. Fifty years ago, we thought that was science fiction; today our reaction is simply, "I wonder who it is!"

There is nothing like having another birthday to raise philosophical thoughts around mortality--or positively speaking, the possibility of “immortality”. The case is still out as to whether human immortality is even achievable--at the moment, immortality can only be attributed to the Turritopsis nutricula, otherwise known as the “immortal jellyfish.” This jellyfish reverts back to a juvenile form after becoming sexually mature, so in its continuing cycle of life stages, its exact age is untraceable…hence, immortal.

Many futurist scientists do believe that human immortality is possible in the very near future. Some believe that life extension is a more realistic short term goal, which goes hand in hand with the current research being done on human aging reversal. The possibilities seem endless! We heard the other day that the first person who will live to be 150 is already alive. Fifty years ago, a statement like that belonged in a science fiction novel, but today our reaction is simply, “I wonder who it is!”

Probably the first thing to come our way will be affordable “anti-aging” breakthroughs. And the result?  We may not live a whole lot longer, but we will look pretty darn good all the way until the end!  Ok, we won’t pretend that this doesn’t intrigue us, because we just don’t feel very old! 

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Looking around at our peers, we see many who approach their traditional “retirement years” as a time to wind down…slow down…shut down…let life pass you by…live vicariously through your kids. This is just not our experience! When you are as happy with life as we are, we view even our age as a positive thing in our life — “healthy aging” we call it.  And the idea that living beyond what is considered to be the normal “limits” is a target we have already identified as one that we want to achieve!     

In many ways I feel younger now than I did in my mid-thirties, when the responsibilities of raising kids were always at the forefront of my decisions and choices. Now with kids grown, and grandkids growing, I have finally figured out how to be a better partner and have been blessed with a terrific partner that feels the same way I do. Living things move, and we do keep moving! We both spend our days working and playing, learning new things, going new places, surrounding ourselves with positive family and friends, keeping us internally younger than our years.

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As baby boomers, we have experienced back to back decades of amazing technological breakthroughs, and have both grown up believing that most things are achievable, when just enough “elbow grease” is applied. The “elbow grease” we currently use is our mutual encouragement to learn new things, fueled by our passion to experience more life adventures together. Most of our days end wishing there were a few more hours left — we still have so much stuff left to do!

Perhaps the real “Fountain of Youth” is simply this spirit of youth, keeping us younger than our years. That being the case, we definitely expect to “live long and prosper!"

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