As we walk through life we observe natural selection in action

Observing natural selection is not a pretty thing. But, I have watched it thin out many people I met along the way in various ways.

In childhood the kids who take to many risks die or those who are not strong or are poor without a good diet or who have parents who won't or don't protect them from the world die or are permanently maimed, and I watched this all the time I was growing up.

In my teens I began to see kids who fall in love and since it isn't going to work out at that age many kill themselves directly or just join the Army so they can die overseas when love doesn't work out for them. Or they drive their cars too fast and race and that ends them too.

Or they take drugs or alcohol and then drive or fly or whatever and that kills them too.

Or they eat poisonous food in this country or others or don't eat at all and that kills them too.

So, at every point and at every age I have watched people my age (and younger and older too) die for various reasons and hopefully we all learn from others tragic mistakes along the way. Otherwise, what a total waste it is to lose so many beautiful people.

But, that's the way natural selection actually works with people. Those that survive get to breed and those who don't don't have their genetics going down through history on into the future.

Every mother of ours back thousands of years had to get pregnant and either raise us or get someone to raise us or none of us would be here right now. And all those who failed at this don't have their genetics pass onward. This is natural selection in action every day of our lives.

It isn't pretty but it is the way we all survive or die at every single point.

Also, as you age (in order to continue surviving well) you have to be aware of what you aren't doing as well as you once were. In some ways usually if you make it to 50 or 60 years of age you are pretty good at making some or most decisions in your life. If you weren't good at making a few decisions that came out well you wouldn't still be alive and sane by 50 or 60.

But, you have to be aware what is changing like you might wear glasses (for me 45 was the turning point) which can be very hard when you had perfect vision and coordination up until then. So, as I started to wear glasses I fell down the stairs to the garage twice before I stopped wearing socks around the house(carpeted stairways) and stopped wearing glasses when I walked down any stairs (because it screws up your depth perception). Also, I don't ever wear glasses when I ride my motorcycle or I might die because I don't have good depth perception when I wear glasses (even though I'm not required to wear glasses for driving anything yet. But, I wear progressives to drive my truck or cars in the family because if I didn't I couldn't read signs soon enough for my happiness. Even though I'm not required to wear glasses because I can still read those things in the DMV okay. But, I prefer to be safer. Also, I don't drive at 67 unless it is some kind of an emergency after about 11 pm or midnight because I want to be safer than that.

Luckily, I learned tumbling and how to fall as a young man to prevent sprained ankles while doing jump shots playing basketball. So, when I fell down the stairs I knew to grab the rail as I went down so outside of a couple of bruises I was fine both times. However, when you are used to being incredibly strong and coordinated your whole life this is a little embarrassing even if at first you don't tell your wife or anyone about it.

So, being aware of all the changes to our bodies, eyes, minds and adapting to all these changes before we die from the changes, allows us and everyone else to stay alive too.

For example, reading more than 1 hour of a book now (from wearing glasses tends to make me want to throw up or have a really bad headache. This for me is the worst thing about wearing glasses. So, often when I"m traveling I will get a book on tape (CD) to listen to as I'm driving if I'm not listening to Satellite XM radio which has about 200 channels including CNN and BBC and all sorts of comedy and music stations too. But, for some reason looking at a computer screen or Ipad screen doesn't give me a headache which I think is very strange too. So, one of the things I'm starting to do more is to read kindle E-Books that I download onto my Kindle. This way I can magnify the print so it is easier to read also without giving me a headache or making me nauseated.

So, just be sure you are adapting fast enough to the changes inside you and outside you and around you to you keep on going as long as you want to.