If you consider that in 1900 living to 60 was either normal or exceptional depending upon your point of view. At 68 I considered having studied all this and thinking that for centuries most people didn't live much past 40 or 50 around the world if that, I thought that everything above about 40 was gravy.
And it is also true now here in the U.S. that if you live to be 30 (this is the hardest age to live to by the way) you likely then have a life expectancy (on average) of living to 90 years of age at present.
So, when I look back at my father's father living to 93 and his father living to 93 and my great grandmother living to 102 years of age in Kansas I know I have some pretty exceptional genes in place to begin with.
So, I agree with the statistics, for me, living to even 25 was very very difficult. I think almost dying of first whooping cough at age 2 and then blunt trauma childhood epilepsy (caused by a blow to the head) I found out in my 50s because that is the only kind you can grow out of by 15 like I did was sort of putting me on a path to believe I would die young to begin with. This wasn't helped by the Viet Nam War either. But, one magical thing about having had Blunt trauma childhood epilepsy is it kept me out of the draft by giving me a 4f. So, even though I suffered a lot as a child I didn't have to suffer and die or be maimed in Viet Nam too on top of all that.
So, this moved my life forward in incredible ways too and gave me many opportunities that many of my friends who were drafted and went to Viet Nam did not have. So, in all generations just living to 30 or even 25 is the real miracle. Once you do that (to 30) and have figured out what to do with yourself beyond just being a kid, you have hope then of potentially a very long life.
One of the most important things in life is you have to be very very adaptable. Because whatever you are experiencing you likely aren't going to be experiencing that very long (good or bad or neutral) because everything keeps changing. People die around you that you really wouldn't expect or believe in a million years. Things happen you really couldn't even make up or believe could happen to you or others in a million years. Everything changes in completely unpredictable ways.
So, one of the many keys to survival is taking an interest in adapting to all the changes. It is sort of like playing chess where life is on the other side in the chess game and you are competing playing chess for your survival every single day of your life. And then there are plateaus where everything is good that you can sort of rest every so often. And then something happens and you have to struggle for awhile. It just seems to go on forever like that.
However, you or I or others or our children might be living within the next 100 years or so to unbelievable ages of 125 to 150 to 200 years of age or more.
Why is this?
Both psychologically and medically we are slowly getting used to the idea that there is no real limit to how long a human being can and will live.
So, getting ready for the next series of human roller coasters should be quite interesting to observe over the next 100 to 500 years because of this and other things.
Good Luck!
I think we are all going to need it.
By God's Grace
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