I’m betting that everyone, everywhere, at any time in history would be vastly interested in how to effortlessly prolong life.
The quest for the secret to longer life can probably be documented as long ago as 4000 years.
Gilgamesh – around 2000 BCE in Mesopotamia appeared in the Epic of Gilgamesh – as a hero who nevertheless was terrified of death. He goes on a search for eternal life and finds a plant capable of restoring youth, but a serpent steals it.
Oh well.
China’s first emperor, also obsessed with immortality, sent his subjects on numerous quests for an elixir of eternal life. I don’t think they found it, but Emperor Qin Shi Huang consumed many preparations containing mercury – thinking that would help – and it actually may have contributed to his death.
Oh well.
The legend of Ponce de Leon rings in my ear. In 1513, he reached the coast of what is now Florida looking for both new lands and new opportunities. Tradition says Ponce de Leon was hoping to find the Fountain of Youth – thinking anyone who drank from the waters would be youthfully restored. There is little evidence that this was the purpose of his exploration, but the association still stands. And apparently, he never found it.
Oh well
I’m not that ambitious.
Sure I walk, do yoga, eat pretty well (except I’ve become obsessed lately with Cokes), take my meds, and try to stay emotionally well-balanced – though if you ask my sons they will probably say I’m not trying hard enough in that realm. I also am making a concerted effort to employ logic rather than wistful thinking, in situations that come up, but that’s not working so great either.
So I just write my weekly column – along with a few books I’ve authored thrown in between – hoping that my words may be treasured and valued after I am gone by those people that I treasure and value. And that those same people will overlook my foibles, weaknesses and shortcomings since it doesn’t look like I’ll get to live forever.
That’s how I want to be immortal because I really don’t think an elixir exists.
Here’s my newest thoughts on aging as I am now officially in my 79th year:
When I get to be 80,
I want to have long hair and be skinny
And ditch my white SUV
For a bright orange mini
When I get to be 80,
Hopefully my stomach flab will disappear
And instead of lamenting my losses,
I’ll glory in living one more year
When I get to be 80,
No gossip will I impart
And I’ll only say kind things
About friends who did depart
When I get to be 80,
Lower expectations I’ll embrace
Except when it comes to age ravages
Heaped upon my face
For those I’ll try creams and lotions
Facials and magic potions
And if they don’t work, I won’t be a jerk
I’ll just simply resign myself to being 80
And I also will keep in mind rules by Roger Rosenblatt in his very wise book rules for aging:
After the age of 30, it is unseemly to blame one’s parents for one’s life.
Play to your strengths.
Just because the person who criticizes you is an idiot doesn’t make him wrong.
If they tell you it’s a long shot, it is.
I’d like to know what keeps you young at heart. What keeps you prolonging your life? What are the rules you follow? Let me know your secret.
Keep Preserving Your Bloom,
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