Birthdays

I have never been much for birthdays. Sometimes they fly by unnoticed. I seldom remember anyone else’s except the wife’s (well mostly). I guess I don’t see the point. There are some milestones – 13 (teenager), 21 (I can drink and vote, preferably not at the same time), 40 (I’m approaching middle age), 65 (Medicare here I come) and the like.

The problem is that today, folks are taking so much better care of themselves (and so is the medical profession) that 60 is the “new” 40 and many born after 1945 and who take care of themselves can expect to live to be 100. There are some problems you can’t fix (age your parents and grandparents died, etc.) You can check yourself out here. I did two tests at that site one which was fairly close to myself (I’ll live to be 102) and one which was not such a goodie two shoes (overweight, higher blood pressure, pack a day smoker, heavy drinker, no exercise, bad driver). That poor sucker will barely make it to 68. For those with family history problems, I skewed the test with parents that had diseases or died young, and it only took about 10 or 15 years off the expectancy age. But do it yourself. First hedge a little, just cuz, and then tell the truth.

The point is, however, that if you have good genes, take relatively good care of yourself, don’t drink to excess, don’t smoke, and exercise (God, why live at all), instead of having 3 years to live when you are 65, you can have 20, 30 40 or even more. Plus those years can be fun, productive, and worth living.

So for the poor soul that is not going to make it to 68, he had 28 years to go at 40, But if you are heading for 90 or 100, you have 30 or 40 years to go when you are 60. That means that 60 is the new 40. We have lots of time left to screw up the world for our children.

Now I’m going out and probably get hit by a bus

JVH