How Long is Too Long?

My nephew Joel had a birthday the other day-- which in typical and despicable fashion I failed to acknowledge. In responding to his many well-wishers he commented that the life-expectancy of the average male in 1900 was 48 years. I did my fact checking and I think he was a teensy bit generous-- I come up with 46 years, but his point is well made.

Fast forward a few dozen years and FDR signs the Social Security Act in 1935, a time when the average life expectancy for a male was almost 60 years. Five years later the first payments were paid out and the average life expectancy had ticked up to just under 61 years. For a program designed to make payments some time after the age of 61 years, the math was pretty good.

In 2014, the life expectance for a male born in the United States is 76 years. The math has definitely changed.

Somehow, where I live, it seems that I see an awful lot of people in their late 70's and 80's. Every once in a while I see one, or a couple, who have been able to save and invest in such a way that they continue to enjoy a comfortable existence, whether they remain at home or live in some fashion of facility.  (The good ones cost 5-7000 per month around here-- snow and all.) By a long stretch I see a vast majority, however, who live on very limited means. Skipping or skimping on medications is common. Thread bare clothing-- often well kept. clean, and tidy-- is not all that uncommon. I think hunger is not all that foreign as well.

At the same time, I am always interested in stories like the one on Science Friday yesterday discussing the future utility and promise of scientific advances in medicine like cyborg bacteria-- creature/machines programed to search out and destroy cancer cells and the like. We could live on and on and on in a perfect world.  3D generated replacement parts, stem cell regeneration. Everything but a vaccine to protect us against our most insidious foes: hatred, violence, and war.

In the past few weeks I've had the opportunity to visit with a couple elderly wives of elderly patients. Both were facing the same concerns-- husbands with failing minds, failing health, and dwindling financial resources. I was struck with the fact that both of these women were so very real in their perspective: They understood the value of a life well lived, they understood the value of rich memories, and, importantly, they understood the finite nature of life. They understood that life, hard as it may be, can be a gift or a curse and that, just which that will be is, in part, at the discretion of the receiver. These women saw life as a gift, a gift that is yours for a lifetime. A finite and unpredictable lifetime that doesn't necessarily end as well as it was lived or scripted.

So, I guess before I hold out any hope for some type of bioengineered happy ending, I need to concentrate on the value of a life that offers just so many years-- just so many fabulous, frustrating, fun-filled, trying, passionate, challenging years. And keep up my payments on that nursing home insurance.

By the way, a belated Happy Birthday Joel!