Aging

This getting older leaves a lot to be desired. I keep catching myself having to recite my age to myself so I remember where I am on the yardstick of life. I can't imagine I'm the only one! They say it's a real trend of the baby boomer generation.

A recent visit to the doctor indicated I should be managing more carefully my blood pressure and cholesterol. Shocked with this news, I had to focus on what had changed.

Inside me is the heart and mind of a 25 year old, despite what my chronological age actually is. I have always been full of enthusiasm and ideas and nothing has changed.

But now the packaging is starting to fray. I know that what is in the mirror isn't a teenager, but neither is it what my grandmother looked like to me as a child.

About ten years ago, I started actively planning for retirement. Setting up funds etc when the big question came along..."How long do you think you will live?"

Well, I responded, about to 85 I guess, that is what the actuarial tables suggest. My investment adviser looked at me a long time and said, ummm, well that's what they say today. You are talking about something 40 years away. We should plan for you to live to 100.

Well, that had implications! Much longer life meant, really much longer working life to fund it. It meant thinking a lot harder about maintaining good health as much as possible while accepting that inevitably, some body parts will wear out in that kind of life span.

Even now, just ten years later, one of my aunts, at 85 years old, has recently had a dual hip replacement and is running around like a, well, like a 50 year old!

So while I was sceptical at first about this 100 year life span, it seems more and more likely despite the older I get (and younger I feel!). Perhaps the estimate will prove to be modest.

What will we do with this extraordinary gift of time? Will it be a blessing or burden? Will we be gracious or grasping? I don't know. But I absolutely plan to hang around and find out.

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