A Tale of Two Futures The best of times and the worst of times
Excerpt from “Growing Bolder: Defy the Cult of Youth, Live With Passion and Purpose,” by Marc Middleton.
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G R O W I N G B O L D E R / FA L L 2 0
In the opening paragraph of “A Tale of Two Cities,” Charles Dickens wrote: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us...” Aging is very much a tale of two cities. The 50-plus demographic is the most diverse group of all time, containing extreme wealth and abject poverty; vibrant health as well as chronic illness and disability. On one hand, this is the greatest time in the history of humankind to be over 50, 80 and even 100. We’ve all won the Mega-life Lottery. Humankind has been on the planet for 300,000 years; and for 99% of that time, the average life expectancy was 18. In 1900, the average life expectancy in the U.S. was just 49, and there were only 122,000 people 85 or older. It’s projected that there’ll be nearly 20 million 85 or older by 2050, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Of the 117 billion people born since the beginning of time, fewer than 3 billion have lived with a life expectancy greater than 50 and with a daily income greater than $2.50. We’re all in that group! Few in the history of humankind have ever made it to our age with an opportunity for continued adventure and significance. Ray Kurzweil, Google’s director of engineering and one of the world’s foremost futurists, says we’ve lost perspective when it comes to appreciating what we have. “Read about what human life was like two centuries ago,” he told me. “Read Thomas Hobbes. Read Charles Dickens. Life expectancy was 37. Franz Schubert died at 31. Mozart died at 35. There were widespread bacterial infections. There were no antibiotics. Life was extremely harsh, filled with hard labor. It took six to eight hours just to prepare the evening meal. The poor today have amenities that kings and queens didn’t have a century ago. We very quickly forget what life was like not long ago.”
