How Long Do You Want To Live?-Old Post
How Long You Want To Live?
How long do you really want to live? The best two lines I ever heard were: 1. Health nuts are going to feel stupid one day, lying in the hospital dying of nothing, and 2. Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die. I know as I get older I will probably wish I had taken better care of myself. Not that I have done that badly, but we always feel we could do better. I just don't ever want to be a fanatic about health or anything else for that matter. I just can't stand a freaking fanatic preaching about anything. Look at Tom Cruise, jumping up and yelling at Matt L. about Christian Science. I just lost a lot of respect for him at that time. But I digress. My mom is 82 and never took a pill in her life, was healthy as a horse, a Kansas farm girl. Now she is taking all kinds of pills, has four replacement parts in her body, knees, shoulder, etc. She still has her sense of humor though. She said she was lying in bed one morning and didn't feel bad as long as she didn't move. She said she thought she would just lay there and die. There was this long pause and then she said, "But then I got hungry". Haha. If you can still laugh at 82 even though you feel like hell I guess your ahead of the game. I think a lot of your health can be attributed to genetics. The thing that scares me about that is my mom's side lose control of their bodies first instead of their minds. I always said I wanted to be that little old man that ran around the nursing home not bothering anyone but writing people up on an invisible pad with an invisible pencil. Oh, God, please let me lose my mind first. I read an article about Sardinians that said the people in general in this one village lived longer lives than anyone in the world. They said the women did equal work but I wonder... saying the men walked the pastures all day and slaughtered the animals for food, chopped and trimmed(whatever that means). While from what I gleaned from this the women did all the bills, cooked all the meals for the whole four or five generations of family, did all the laundry, took care of everyone, but, they all had wine with meals. I say hand me a glass of wine, a piece of pizza and call me a Sardinian man!!!! Of course all the people that were cited, lived way out in the middle of no where, had no polution, raw and whole or home grown foods,no processed anything. So I would think that would have something to do with longevity. No, I take that back, there was a woman in Cal. who turned 100 and had her drivers liscense renewed for another five years, more power to her. Then there was a 100 year old man still waterskiing. He started this in 1939 when they were wooden planks with rubber bands. I think, on thinking about this that for the most part, state of mind has as much to do with longevity as anything else. Everything is relative too. As you get older you still don't think your all that old. My mom didn't want to go to the seniors centers because there were a bunch of old people there. So you see, it doesn't even matter if you feel awful, it's how old you feel in your head.
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Monday January 16, 2006 - 11:51am (CST) Edit Delete
Next Post: Good Grief! Previous Post: Lucy Five Cents
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Just seen a report on TV about this little old man that turned 107 today.He was ask how he did it ,his answer:"There is no recipe,you either get old or you die young."..LOL
Monday January 16, 2006 - 07:17pm (CET) Remove Comment
OL' B…
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it must be in your mind all right.... i'm 38 going on 78! and i got the aching joints to prove it!
Monday January 16, 2006 - 12:51pm (CST) Remove Comment
red74…
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Maybe so but you still have your sense of humor, both of you.
Monday January 16, 2006 - 12:56pm (CST) Remove Comment
♥S Y …
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You're picture of the lady at the top had me in stitches a few minutes ago! Love the picture! You're right about aging. My grandmother is the same way- she was raised as a poor farm girl- living off the land, the animals and using natural remedies for things that we now refer to as 'old wives tales' but for her and thier family, the things worked. She turned 91 last year and is on so many medications that she can't keep them all straight. Her mind is going, too. The sad part about our society is that aged people are not accepted well. Sure, we have senior centers and knitting activities on one spectrum of the dyad; on the other we have anti-aging products, remedies to help people sustain life and worst of all (and my pet peeve) resuscitation unless there are advance directives. I believe the American culture trades quality of life for quantity. Case in point, is it really going to make that big of a difference if an elderly diabetic has ONE small piece of birthday cake to celebrate- or should we take the cake away, trade it for a tofu surprise in order to maybe pull out another 3 months of life for this person. Hell, give me the cake already :) KiKi
Monday January 16, 2006 - 06:20pm (EST) Remove Comment
Šlím™
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I think it's more of the mind over matter. I have no intention of getting old.
Monday January 16, 2006 - 09:45pm (CST) Remove Comment
red74…
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Hi KiKi, Welcome to my blog, I agree with you give me the cake. My mom has a signed a no resuscitation paper, and this is so stupid to me, she goes to a Catholic hospital because that is where her docs practice so if she gets into trouble they will transport her to a different hospital where they will pull the plug because the Catholics don't believe in it. And Slim I keep saying I am not getting old and don't feel I am in my mind but my body is rebelling. Things I won't go into here, but one day I cauught my husband plucking and shaving and trimming, secretly, lol and he said things are growing where they shouldn't. I'm just sprucing up. I thought" Thank You" that we are both having the same problems at the same time. I just haven't gotten caught yet. I think ultimately humor is the key.
Tuesday January 17, 2006 - 10:19am (CST) Remove Comment
Šlím™
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My body objects too...but I tell it to "suck it up".
Tuesday January 17, 2006 - 02:03pm (CST) Remove Comment
How long do you really want to live? The best two lines I ever heard were: 1. Health nuts are going to feel stupid one day, lying in the hospital dying of nothing, and 2. Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die. I know as I get older I will probably wish I had taken better care of myself. Not that I have done that badly, but we always feel we could do better. I just don't ever want to be a fanatic about health or anything else for that matter. I just can't stand a freaking fanatic preaching about anything. Look at Tom Cruise, jumping up and yelling at Matt L. about Christian Science. I just lost a lot of respect for him at that time. But I digress. My mom is 82 and never took a pill in her life, was healthy as a horse, a Kansas farm girl. Now she is taking all kinds of pills, has four replacement parts in her body, knees, shoulder, etc. She still has her sense of humor though. She said she was lying in bed one morning and didn't feel bad as long as she didn't move. She said she thought she would just lay there and die. There was this long pause and then she said, "But then I got hungry". Haha. If you can still laugh at 82 even though you feel like hell I guess your ahead of the game. I think a lot of your health can be attributed to genetics. The thing that scares me about that is my mom's side lose control of their bodies first instead of their minds. I always said I wanted to be that little old man that ran around the nursing home not bothering anyone but writing people up on an invisible pad with an invisible pencil. Oh, God, please let me lose my mind first. I read an article about Sardinians that said the people in general in this one village lived longer lives than anyone in the world. They said the women did equal work but I wonder... saying the men walked the pastures all day and slaughtered the animals for food, chopped and trimmed(whatever that means). While from what I gleaned from this the women did all the bills, cooked all the meals for the whole four or five generations of family, did all the laundry, took care of everyone, but, they all had wine with meals. I say hand me a glass of wine, a piece of pizza and call me a Sardinian man!!!! Of course all the people that were cited, lived way out in the middle of no where, had no polution, raw and whole or home grown foods,no processed anything. So I would think that would have something to do with longevity. No, I take that back, there was a woman in Cal. who turned 100 and had her drivers liscense renewed for another five years, more power to her. Then there was a 100 year old man still waterskiing. He started this in 1939 when they were wooden planks with rubber bands. I think, on thinking about this that for the most part, state of mind has as much to do with longevity as anything else. Everything is relative too. As you get older you still don't think your all that old. My mom didn't want to go to the seniors centers because there were a bunch of old people there. So you see, it doesn't even matter if you feel awful, it's how old you feel in your head.
Tags: old-age Edit Tags
Monday January 16, 2006 - 11:51am (CST) Edit Delete
Next Post: Good Grief! Previous Post: Lucy Five Cents
Comments(7 total) Post a Comment
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Offline IM
Just seen a report on TV about this little old man that turned 107 today.He was ask how he did it ,his answer:"There is no recipe,you either get old or you die young."..LOL
Monday January 16, 2006 - 07:17pm (CET) Remove Comment
OL' B…
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it must be in your mind all right.... i'm 38 going on 78! and i got the aching joints to prove it!
Monday January 16, 2006 - 12:51pm (CST) Remove Comment
red74…
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Maybe so but you still have your sense of humor, both of you.
Monday January 16, 2006 - 12:56pm (CST) Remove Comment
♥S Y …
Offline
You're picture of the lady at the top had me in stitches a few minutes ago! Love the picture! You're right about aging. My grandmother is the same way- she was raised as a poor farm girl- living off the land, the animals and using natural remedies for things that we now refer to as 'old wives tales' but for her and thier family, the things worked. She turned 91 last year and is on so many medications that she can't keep them all straight. Her mind is going, too. The sad part about our society is that aged people are not accepted well. Sure, we have senior centers and knitting activities on one spectrum of the dyad; on the other we have anti-aging products, remedies to help people sustain life and worst of all (and my pet peeve) resuscitation unless there are advance directives. I believe the American culture trades quality of life for quantity. Case in point, is it really going to make that big of a difference if an elderly diabetic has ONE small piece of birthday cake to celebrate- or should we take the cake away, trade it for a tofu surprise in order to maybe pull out another 3 months of life for this person. Hell, give me the cake already :) KiKi
Monday January 16, 2006 - 06:20pm (EST) Remove Comment
Šlím™
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I think it's more of the mind over matter. I have no intention of getting old.
Monday January 16, 2006 - 09:45pm (CST) Remove Comment
red74…
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Hi KiKi, Welcome to my blog, I agree with you give me the cake. My mom has a signed a no resuscitation paper, and this is so stupid to me, she goes to a Catholic hospital because that is where her docs practice so if she gets into trouble they will transport her to a different hospital where they will pull the plug because the Catholics don't believe in it. And Slim I keep saying I am not getting old and don't feel I am in my mind but my body is rebelling. Things I won't go into here, but one day I cauught my husband plucking and shaving and trimming, secretly, lol and he said things are growing where they shouldn't. I'm just sprucing up. I thought" Thank You" that we are both having the same problems at the same time. I just haven't gotten caught yet. I think ultimately humor is the key.
Tuesday January 17, 2006 - 10:19am (CST) Remove Comment
Šlím™
Offline
My body objects too...but I tell it to "suck it up".
Tuesday January 17, 2006 - 02:03pm (CST) Remove Comment
