Reece Gardner: Living longer has its challenges

I want to expand on a Column I wrote several years about age. Even with the Pandemic we have experienced the past two years, people are still living longer, Centenarians are actually the fastest growing age segment, with the number of 100-year-olds to hit 6 million by mid-century.

The Census Bureau recently revealed that the number of people living to age 90 and beyond has tripled since 1980 and is likely to quadruple by 2050. This is important in a number of ways, but just as important is not so much the number of years we live but HOW we live those years. We have all probably known people who were 40 going on 90, and some who were 90 going on 40. General Douglas McArthur said, "Life is not measured simply by a number of years. It is a quality of the will, a temper of the imagination. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt.

As young as your courage, as old as your fear; As young as your hope, as old as your despair. In everyone's heart there is a recording chamber. So long as it receives messages of hope, courage, and faith, so long are you young. But when the wires are all down and the heart is filled with the snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then, AND THEN ONLY, are you grown old." Living longer also has its challenges. The subject of retirement is already prompting a global reconsideration of how we think about the life cycle. We may soon need to find new ways to work to age 100 or more. With fewer younger workers available, employers are going to need to keep older workers on the job. For example the year 2017 marked the first time that there were more people 65 and older than there were children younger than 5.

There are a number of factors that this can be attributed to, such as decades of medical advances which have reduced such ailments as heart disease and strokes. Genetics and lifestyles are also factors, along with doctors who are more willing to aggressively treat the health problems of people once considered too old for such care. Of course, with this trend, adjustments will need to be made in the way government and industry handle pensions, social security, and medicare. So the good news is that people are living longer and, for the most part, healthier than in the past. But we need to keep in mind that life really consists of just one day at a time. We need to be thankful for each day we are given and to remember that "This is the day the Lord has made, and I can rejoice and be glad in it."

Now to close with a little humor: A woman and her husband interrupted their vacation to go to the dentist. "I want a tooth pulled and I don't want any painkillers because we're in a big hurry," the woman said. "Just extract the tooth as quickly as possible and we'll be on our way." The dentist was quite impressed and said, "You're certainly a courageous woman, which tooth is it?" The woman turned to her husband and said, "Show him the tooth, Dear."

HAVE A WONDROUS DAY!