Word has it some folks may soon be living to 150 - and even well beyond.
Why the story was plopped into the middle of the second section of a newspaper I picked up the other day is beyond me.
Seems to me that a story with a headline that reads "Aging cure nears" deserves to be on the front page.
With a headline 10 inches high.
Anyway, there it was - a prediction by some British biomedical gerontologist who reckons the first person to live to 150 has already been born. And not only that: he also figures that within 20 years, some people will begin a 1,000year lifespan.
That's right. We're talking a lifetime 10 centuries long.
I scratched my head when I read it.
"Would you want to live to 150?" I asked my husband. "Or 1,000?"
"Hmm," thought the husband. "Maybe. Might give us a reasonable shot at paying off the mortgage."
"I'm serious," I said. "According to this story here, in the not-too-distant future some folks will be living for centuries. Imagine that. We could have greatgreat-great-great-greatgreat-great grandchildren."
"Hmm," said the husband. "We don't have enough ovens to cook all the turkeys we'd need at Christmas."
"We don't have enough dining room tables, either. Or enough silverware," I pointed out. "I gather people would have to work long beyond 65. And they would have to start maxing out their RSP contributions as soon as they entered kindergarten."
There would, I suggested, be pros and cons to living to 1,000.
We'd get in a lot more golf. On the other hand, there'd be so many people vying for a round, it wouldn't be easy booking tee times.
We'd have more time to do the things we never get around to doing. Like putting our pictures in photo albums, say. Or getting the linen closet in order. Or cleaning the eaves more than once a year.
On the other hand, I don't know how safe it would be for an 875-year-old man or woman to climb a ladder to the eaves.
"We'd have to hire someone younger," I said. "You know, like someone in the 600year range."
"No way," said the husband. "We'll get one of the great-greatgreat-great-great-great grandchildren to do it."
"Seriously," I said. "What would we do with all that time?"
The husband shrugged. "Maybe nap a little more," he said. "Maybe take up a hobby. Like car racing, say."
"Car racing?" I asked. "That's too dangerous! Why do something that dangerous when you have a chance to live to 1,000?"
No way, I said. If I had a chance to have 1,000-odd birthdays, I'd want to live my life cautiously, as it were.
Car racing? Not for the first few centuries, anyway. I think I'd stick with reading, and take up racing when I hit 900.
