The New York Times is interested in hearing your thoughts about getting to live to be 100. Sound good? Or... do you have another thought? Here's the link, if you'd like to let The Times know what you think. Here's what I think:
I will be 83 years old on the day after Christmas, this year, and I have had a pretty significant and wonderful life. For twenty years, from 1975 to 1995, I served as an elected member of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, during a time of tumultuous politics in our local community. I was, in other words, elected five times in a row, retiring when I was fifty. At the end of 1999, the local newspaper (which never supported me politically) said that I was one of two people who had the most significant impact on Santa Cruz County during the 20th Century. That might actually be true!
I went on to head up both a local and a statewide nonprofit corporation, both of them dedicated to the protection of California’s environment, and I taught for fourteen years in the Legal Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. For the last sixteen years, I have published this daily blog, called, “We Live In A Political World.” I have never missed a day! My ideas about personal fulfilment (which The Times did want to hear about) do look a bit different now, from my current perspective, than they used to look when I was younger. Much more than I did before, I understand what a gift and a blessing it is to have been alive – and to be alive now. In a very real way, I now “Fear Not.” That is a change.
Do I strive to live to be 100? I’d be glad to get there, but I am absolutely at peace with the reality of death, and my understanding of life is now more by way of celebration than striving. I have been married to a wonderful wife for fifty-seven years and have two children in their fifties - plus three grandchildren. Both my daughter and son, particularly, have helped me “appreciate,” not “strive,” as I look to the future adventures yet to come.
Image Credit:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/well/longevity-callout.html
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