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Living to 130

John W. Pinkerton

oldjwpinkerton@gmail.com

"Do not try to live forever, you will not succeed." George Bernard Shaw


Today on television I heard a report that someone said that theoretically there is no reason we humans can't live to 130 years.


Interesting…but not very.


I'll be 80 in April.  I'm well aware that I'm running out of years.


(Sidebar: It just crossed my mind that if I were to drop dead while writing this essay, that would be amusing---maybe that's just me.)


Although the corona virus has temporarily stopped our “progress” toward greater longevity, it has been progressing pretty aggressively through the years.  In the United States, life expectancy at birth, over the 110 years from 1900 to 2010 went from 47.3 to 78.7.


The average lifespan for everyone in the world is 73.2; for females 75.6; and for the poor old men 70.8.


If you don't want to live any longer than is absolutely necessary, move to the Central African Republic 54.36 (all), 56.58.   (females) 52.16 (males).  That definitely cuts down on social security payments---assuming they have such an animal.  Of 193 nations, the greatest longevity exists in Hong Kong followed by Japan and Macao.  (Yeah, I also had to look it up.)


How does the United States rank?  We're number 46. (79.11 all, 81.65 females, 76.61 males).


46th  ain't great but the good news, I guess, is that we're doing better than our neighbors to the South, Mexico  They're ranked 90th (75.41 all, 78.17 females, 72.62 males): however, our neighbors to the north, Canada, is beating our pants off with a ranking of 16th (82.96 all,84.74 females, 81.15 males).


If you go to the internet, you'll find a lot…a lot of advice on how to live longer.  Most are filled with “don'ts.”


Don't get fat, don't eat junk, don't sit on your big behind too much,  don't lose sleep, don't smoke, don't drink to excess, and for you New Agers, don't be around negative people.  Honestly a lot of these don'ts are my favorite things.  

enough