Based on your lifestyle and genetics, how old do you think you will live to be, and how old do you want to live?
I was pondering this question after reading about Andy Kaufman, whom I'm too young to remember. The guy, who apparently wasn't a smoker, died at just 35 of lung cancer. As awful as dying at 35 sounds, my dad was close to 60 when I was born, so I have been given a unique perspective on aging: namely that I don't want to experience it.
Looking into my family background, I'll probably live to be pretty old considering my active lifestyle and diet: none of my grandparents were healthy, yet only my maternal grandmother didn't live to see her 80s (she was a chain smoker). Personally, I want only the potential to live to be 100--and then die at about 55-65 in an accident. I don't know, maybe I'll change my tune when I hit that age. It's just that seeing my dad struggle with arthritis, being forced to scale back or give up entirely various physical hobbies, makes me wonder if life as an old man is really worth living. I know there's more to life than weightlifting or cycling and whatnot, but I'd probably have a lot less fun without them; plus there are a lot of dysfunctions which older men are known to face. Nowadays, people are living longer so 60 or so would be just on the precipice of being considered old.
There's a line in Blade Runner which goes, "The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long - and you have burned so very, very brightly." I don't want to die young or anything, but unless I managed to find some extraordinary luck physically, the idea of being old seems depressing.
