For those over or approaching 60; do you find yourself measuring your life in terms of the years you have left?
Asked by
rojo (
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March 14th, 2017
I do.
I know that the average life expectancy of an American male (in my State) is just over 75½ years. I know this is just an average and that I could go tomorrow or live to be 100 but knowing that there is this uncertainty doesn’t change things.
Knowing the 75.5 year number causes me to view my life in terms of “Only another 13½ years left, what do I want to do now?” on the good days.
On bad days it is more of an “Oh God, not another thirteen years!”
I chose age 60 in the question because that is approximately the time that I began looking at life in these terms. I would be interested to know if those who are younger sometimes look at it this way and if so, when did you begin to think like that?
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11 Answers
I think about it but I don’t well on it. To quote a tritism, I’m worried more about the life I have left in my years than the years I have left in my life.
Yes, and I think everybody does. People tell me all the time that “people are living longer” but the statistics say otherwise. For me, I have a 50/50 chance of making it to 75.6. That gives me about 12½ more years, if I’m lucky. And lucky if I don’t have to suffer getting there.
My greatest fear is I will be one day away from paying of the loan on my business and I die before I get to enjoy having all that extra money in my pocket. I will be 66 on that day. So yes I do think about it…a lot.
I live by @janbb‘s quote up there^^. It’s not the number on the years that gets me, it’s the friends, relatives and siblings who have passed.
I became aware that there are more books that I want to read than I have time left in my life to read. That makes me sad. I started not finishing books that I wasn’t enjoying because of this.
My Renaissance festival boss is a crotchety dude in his 60s, and he often says things like, “if I’d’ve know I was gonna live this long I’d’ve planned better”, and “I’m pretty sure God just keeps me around because he thinks it’s funny.”
Honestly the dude is in terrible health and I’m mostly surprised to get the call to come back to the booth every year.
Yesterday he willed half the business to me, if I would be willing to do a full season around the country for him just to tell everyone what happened after he kicks off.
Other than – or maybe because of his constant morbidity, he’s a great person to be around. There is a daily parade of hot 50-something women who make a point to come chat with him every day at Faire, and he has friends all around the country.
I love that old man.
Not in my 60s, but after my mom died three years ago and I hit my ‘70s, the “September Song” lyric has become increasingly poingent…
The days dwindle down to a precious few.”
Carpe diem!
@rojo “Only another 13½ years left…Oh God, not another thirteen years!”
It seems that as I grow older, time seems to go faster. Several decades ago, ten years seemed like a lifetime; now I think back on the past 30 years as if they were yesterday.
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