Why Am I still alive at age 78?

 When I look at my life I was able to do pretty much what I always wanted to do from about 1980 to 1985 which was live in the Wilderness surrounding Mt. Shasta and build my own house on 2 1/2 acres of Land and Ski in the winters and swim in mountain lakes or kayak them or swim in rivers and lakes in the summers and hike beautiful places all year long and spend a lot of time with my friends who like to do all these things too.

People often say I look much younger than my age. People often say I look in my 50s instead of 78. Part of this is my genetics where I still have all my hair which seems to be unusual for a man of my age.

I woke up from hernia surgery and a nurse asked me about my hair because I'm 78.

Though I was just coming up out of a deep anesthesia I was able to say this to them:

"Well. I have the whole Viking thing going on! I have hair on my head that keeps me so warm that I used to get heat prostration from it in my twenties and before and I even have hair growing in my ears from that whole Viking thing. I'm designed for really Cold Weather. So, actually California in some ways isn't the best place on earth for me to be unless I'm way up in the Mountains somewhere where it is much colder."

Which is all True:

So, from my point of view it was just how happy I was to live my dream of skiing and living in the Wilderness home schooling my children from 1980 to 1985 that kept me young. Those 5 years where I did exactly what I wanted to in a completely pure environment with clean air and clean water (best tasting on earth) and friends (mostly from California) who moved to MT. Shasta after College who loved mt. Shasta as much as I did.

So, why am I still alive at 78?

Because I lived my dream for 5 years before I had to go do something else and somehow this kept me alive through everything ever since.

By God's Grace

Note: if you can do what really makes you happy even if it is only for 5 years this might keep you alive way past most people you know too.

Because my best friend taught school in East LA even though he came from a very rich family but was gone by age 62 in 2006. My best friend from High School got a jet engine certificate from College and repaired and rebuilt jet engines in Thailand for the Viet Nam war in the Air Force and passed away partly because of this in 2011.

And yet my two earliest best friends are gone in 2006 and 2011. I still have one friend from those Days who traveled over to India and Nepal in 1986 and met me and my family while we were traveling there from December of 1985 to April of 1986. So, he still lives in Mt. Shasta even though we don't rock climb or climb to the top of Mt. Shasta together (but we did in 1970 in August to the top) and he has climbed Mt. Shasta several times since then.

So, why Am I still alive at 78 years old?

Because I've been happy enough here to stay alive all these years. Also, I met my present wife when I was 46 and now I'm 78 so I'm much happier than I ever expected to be at this age by far.

So, I think if you are happy enough with your life and family and friends and where you live on earth often  you might live a really long time!

By God's Grace