I don’t recall exactly when I first gave any thought to living longer. Based on a lot of the dumb things I did while in high school and college, that must have been the furthest thing from my mind when I was young. In fact, I can recall the verse from The Who’s “My Generation” talking about “I hope I die before I get old”. Not exactly sure what Roger Pete, and John think about that now, but Keith didn’t exactly make it to a ripe old age.

To be honest, I still don’t know how long I’d actually like to live to.

I know that must sound very irresponsible, but it’s the quality of those extended years that concern me the most.

What’s the point of living to 95 if the years between 65 and 95 are marred with disability and pain? Of course I’d love to live to 100 and beyond, providing I still have most of my mental faculties and my body hasn’t completely given out.

What’s the chances of that happening if at 51 I’m already experiencing aches and pains that limit some of my activities?

I realize that modern medicine has things like artificial joints that can replace worn out ones, but things are never the same from that point onward.

Rather than stress over what might happen in my later years, I’ve begun to take the necessary steps to preserve what I have left and to improve things that I have never taken the time to develop before.

I’ve begun to take an interest in learning about things that only recently I never would have considered even investigating. Things like yoga and tai chi and massage therapy. I’ve also begun to cut down and even elminate some things from my life that previously may have benefited my longevity, but now are probably wearing my body out sooner.

Letting go of long held, but unrealized dreams is painful, but ultimately necessary.

I’ve always dreamed of dunking a basketball, but it was never a realistic goal given my height and my 4 inch vertical leap. Yet I purchased a “Increase Your Vertical Leap” info product only 2 years ago in the slim hope that I could still somehow work a miracle.

The further worsening of the arthritis in both my knees has put a lid on that foolhardy dream once and for all.

The high impact training required from the vertical leap course is impossible now. However, I still can enjoy shooting baskets alone in a low impact and slow paced setting. Just the fact that I can occasionally get out and make my body move as a complete system is a nice departure from hoisting weights up and down in a limited range of motion at the gym.

My goal now is to live as long as I can while at the same time dragging my body along in essentially one still functioning piece.