3 minute read
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.
Advertisement
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.”
Thanks to advances in medicine, healthcare, technology and genetic research — as well as improved personal lifestyle choices — there now exists an entirely new life stage. We have a two–, three– or even fourdecade opportunity for meaningful, fulfilling life beyond what had been considered normal retirement age. This new life stage offers nearly limitless opportunities to reinvent yourself, pursue your passions, return to school, start a business, repair old relationships, build new relationships, give back to your community and leave a meaningful legacy.
We’re no longer constrained to living linear lives, in which our activities must reflect our ages. We can go to college at 50, get married at 60, start a business at 70, begin running at 80, take up acting at 90 and write a book at 100. There are no longer any arbitrary, age-related rules as to what’s possible and acceptable at any stage of our lives. These extra decades can be filled with passion, purpose and possibility.
The odds of living to an active 100 are increasing every day. Of course, hitting the century mark is worthwhile only if we can get there in a physical, mental and emotional state that allows us to enjoy it. Without quality of life, longevity is more punishment than opportunity. No one wants to become a centenarian if all it means is living an additional 20 years in lonely isolation: bedridden, drugged and being attended to by strangers who might care for you but don’t really care about you.
But what if we can remain active into our 100s? What if we can continue growing, laughing, learning, loving, sharing and giving back into our 100s? What if the growing number of scientists and researchers who predict that living to 120 and enjoying it will soon be commonplace are right? What if tomorrow’s 100-yearolds aren’t warehoused like many 80-year-olds are today? What if they’re not a financial drain on their families and society as a whole? What if they need far less healthcare than the average 40-year-old now requires? What if they’re working, dancing, swimming, volunteering, living alone and enjoying amazing meals and fabulous vacations? Longevity can be a great thing.
Whether it’s the best of times or the worst of times, it’s the only time we’ve got.
— ART BUCHWALD
