Apparently there is a show on TV tonight, a Barbara Walters special, that claims to have the directions to the fountain of youth. They claim we can live 150 years.
This got me thinking. Would I want to live 150 years?
No.
I think it's too long to be on this plane. There are certain lessons we are here to learn and dying is kind of like graduating. I wouldn't want to stay in grade school for 150 years, either. There comes a natural time to die - and 150 years seems to be stretching the limits of nature - or even worse, it is controlling nature.
How about you? Would you like to live 150 years? Why?
~*
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Long Life.....
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35 comments:
Sometimes.
I am very attached to earthly life but even more, to my children, and don't want to say goodbye to them.
At the same time, I am also intensely curious about the process of dying and after, and hope to be reunited with loved ones who have gone on ahead.
I am more afraid of dying painfully than of crossing over, though.
That's a lovely picture on your post, by the way.
I really don't think I would, if I had the choice. Now, that being said... I'm only 30 right now. And though I hope to live a good, long life, I think by the time I get to the 10th decade or so, I'll be starting to break down physically and mentally ~ despite doing my darndest to be healthy. I have seen too many older folks, lonely and forgotten in nursing homes just wasting away. I don't want to be one of them.
I guess it depends on the quality, Chani. I have to assume that since longevity continues to increase with better medical care, in my lifetime it will not be abnormal to see people live to 100. But will it be a mobile 100 with some clarity of thought? Cuz I'll go for that...
yeah, to be honest, as scared and unsure as I am about death (I'm working on it), the idea of living forever doesn't sound appealing either
Yes, but only if I can have reasonable health. I'd love to get to know my grandchildren and great-grandchildren and see as much of the world as possible.
It would depend on what physical state I would be in. If 150 is the new 140, forget it. But if 150 is the new 65, ok.
With the rapid pace of change in this world, I think it would be fascinating to witness 150 years.
I once worked with a lady that was 96 years old and still very "there" mentally. She remembers when the main street through our town was a dirt road. It just amazes me to think of all the things she has seen come and go in her life.
I would only want to live 150 years if everyone I loved lived that long as well, and if I remained healthy enough to actually enjoy it. I can't think of anything worse than outliving all my loved ones, and being left alone.
If in good health, able to move, make art, listen to music.
Then hell yeah! I'll take all I can get.
That so depends. On love and health and quality of existence.
In general, I'd opt for "No" because, like you, I have the sense of "graduation". I know (capital "k") this plane is not my true home and I long to return.
I'm still working on Be Here Now. It's hard to wrap my mind around next year let alone another hundred. (lol!)
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Curiosity. My father is 77. When he was born, his mother had yet to purchase a crystal radio. He traded shrapnel after his school had been destroyed by WWII bombs in his British port town. He had been evacuated. He had learned, studied, emigrated.. he's witnessed massive industrial, technological, geographical, political, economical changes.. and he's Still active politically and socially.. and he said, "I wish I could live another hundred years, just to see how things turn out."
Me too.
i think i'd be willing to take it as it comes but i wouldn't go to lengths to manufacture it.
Oh I so agree with you that I would not want to live that long.
I am 63 now, and have enough aches and pains--I can't imagine the creaking and groaning that would go along with 150 years.
The only caveat--I would love to know what happens in the future. How do certain news stories turn out, for example. Do people learn to live peacably and environmentally soundly on this good earth?
I can't imagine. We'd have to work until we were 130 before we could retire. Unlike you, I don't have much hope of another life to come, but I don't think I want to live here for that long. I've seen enough people die in their 70's and 80's and was glad that they were relieved of their burdens and suffering.
I'm not afraid of dying, esp. at a ripe old age! But if I was able to live that long and could still get around,(quality of life and all)I could see it being wonderful to see and get to know grandchildren and great grandchildren, but that's just me and my ancestral fixation! :)
Hell no. I have taken those longevity tests that say I will live to be 97 and they always make me say "Crap!" If I make 60, that will be more than enough for me.
Hell, no.
150!! Im with you on this one!
As I get a little older and feel the body, mind and sense of being in my own time start to fade a bit...I'm going to say as it stands now? Probably not.
Asides:
1. The story below? Just...weird. I admit, glad you handled it but my worry radar is on.
2. Glad the prints arrived!!
My first impulse is to say, "no way!"
But.
If it guaranteed that I could stay up in Heaven once I got there, and not have to come back to earth to learn more lessons in another incarnation, then maybe.
Yummy told me once that if we do it right, we can live as long as 150 years...and the reason there is that saying life begins at 40 because you are still to live 100 years more after your 40th b-day...LOL
I used to think it might be nice to die young...then as I progress in years, I realize maybe it would be nicer to see ALOT in this world and living a long life is one way of achieving that. Granting I will not be in pain and all, ah, how I love to live 'til the 100 years...else, hahaha, I'd go for the quality of life then. I don't want to die losing my self-esteem and all that.
Just thinking out loud.... :D
I do try to be Buddhist about dying. My problem is, I always want to know the end of the story, and there are always so many stories happening.
Funny you should write on this particular topic at this particular time. Since her recent last jaunt to the hospital in an ambulance my M-I-L and I have been discussing exactly this. She will be 89 this summer and often wishes she could "go already!" But she is so-ooo looking forward to seeing her "sonny-boy"[my 60yr.old husband!] when he comes for a week's visit this w.e. There are things she wants to see resolved. As soon as they are, I think she'll give herself permission to go.
I wouldn't want to live that long. I would prefer quality over quantity and, really, that many years just sounds exhausting to me.
Sure, if I could be healthy and independent the whole time. I am so curious to see what is going to happen on the planet and so in love with it. Plus I think we probably used to live that long before we lost touch with ourselves and our part in the Whole.
To quote a few other commenters, Hell No.
Sometimes i'm not even sure i want to live to be 50, which is how old i am.
The cowboy and I saw the same preview. And my answer was, hell no! Even the centurians in our society are ready to go for the most part. Besides, I really think it's just a transition. Chani, you always ask the hard questions.
I wouldn't want to stick around just for the sake of sticking around, especially if by that point medically I need all sorts of pills or tubes sticking out of me just to do it. It really would depend on what life was like...quality, having those I love around. But I believe that there comes a point when we know we are ready to go. I remember when I was 12, one day my great grandmother said, okay, I'm going to die now...I've lived a long and good life here and now my time is up. Her daughters kind of tsked her and told her not to talk silly. But within a week she was dead. There was nothing wrong with her, she was old, and she decided to let go of her life here and move on. She was ready.
I'd say no....but ask me again when I'm 149.
I saw the commercial for that special as well and asked my partner if he would want to live that long. Me? Hell no. For exactly all the reasons you mentioned.
probably not. . bu the idea of knowing what the world is like 150 years from now is intriguing.
That reminds me of the lyrics from the Gershwin song “It Ain’t Necessarily So”:
Methuselah lived nine hundred years
Methuselah lived nine hundred years
But who calls that livin’
When no gal is willin’
To do a man what’s lived nine hundred years?
I wouldn't mind living to 150 as long as I wasn't actually "old" at 60+ years. That would suck. I mean, if 70 were the new 30, well, then it would be okay.
I love the picture, too, by the way. So that's the happy part. The other part is that sometimes I get depressed to think that I've only gone through *this* much of my life (37 years) and can't imagine even *wanting* to live after 80 or so. God, it's hard enough *with* all my faculties. How much *more* depressed am I going to be when I can't remember things and can't move the way I want to?! Geeze, a real barrel of sunshine I am today, huh? Humfpt. All that to say, no. I wouldn't want to live a long time -- though I'm hopeful that the older I grow, the more I'll feel like HeartinSF.
No, absolutely not! I'm on the same train as you in this matter. Even 80 sometimes appears to be enough years to have learnt the essential on this planet.
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