Another Trip Around the Sun
I recently celebrated a birthday. This one could be considered a “big one” because, well, it is a decade birthday. So, how old am I? I am so glad you asked. I am 30 years away from celebrating my 100th birthday.
Now that I have acheived this “special age,” I am starting to get questions from my friends. A favorite is- “how do you feel?” They graciously leave off the last half of the phrase that I know they are thinking - ”for being so old”. But I know that is the context of the inquiry.
I do struggle to answer the question. I feel good, but I am not 18 anymore. Honestly I am not sure how I am supposed to feel as I have never been this age. One friend asked “do you have any pain?” A pass/fail metric, which on most days I pass. I am grateful, I am not in pain, but the key “feeling” metric for this age should not be just pain. Am I right?
Another question I get is “what was your favorite birthday”. Another difficult question to answer because, well, I have had so many. I could have answered this like 50 years ago. Let me think about this one for a bit.
My curious nature made me decide to research what to expect now that I have entered the seventh decade of my life. That was a mistake. Let me summarize it for you - things change, and mostly not for the good. Yikes!
But they say that 70 is the new 60. Well first of all, who is they? I will tell you who they are not - anyone who knows math. It is a simple equation really: take the current year, subtract your birth year and the difference is our age. Yeh, mine keeps coming up 70. However, I do understand the attitude behind the fuzzy math. And science does provide a seed for the story.
An analysis from Columbia University’s Butler Aging Center has unveiled an encouraging trend: Today’s older adults are experiencing significantly better physical and mental functioning compared to previous generations. This is one of many studies that show similar “good news” results. And in other good news, our life expectancy (in the USA) has moved up to 79.4 years. This compares very favorably to the year I was born, in 1955, when the life expectancy was only 69.1 years, a difference of 10.3 years. Hey, wait a minute, maybe 70 being the new 60 is even supported by the math.
Do we want to continue to play with the fuzzy math just for fun? How about 53.5 is the new 70. Yes, according to research from Yale psychologist and author Becca Levy, just changing our attitude toward aging can, on average, add 7.5 years to our lives. People with an optimistic mindset are associated with various positive health indicators, particularly cardiovascular, pulmonary, metabolic and immunologic. Yes, I am sure there is some overlap with the study mentioned above, but hey, it’s my birthday so I am running with this.
I am happy to be this age. I am ready to continue this journey we call aging. I hope you’ll join me. Oh, and my favorite birthday… the next one.
Enjoy your day.
Just a little extra-
Some of you reading this are my contemporaries and will be celebrating 70 years (or close to it). So I thought I would take us down memory lane for a bit, going all the way back to 1955, the year I was born. So, in 1955-
The President was Dwight Eisenhower
Minimum wage was $.75
Average price of a new car was $1,910
Average price of a house was $10,950
Adolph Coors experimented with aluminum beer cans (changed our lives)
Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California
Mouseketeers premier on TV
Popular song was Unchained Melody
Academy Award winning movie was Marty
I was born.
References
January 4, 2025. 70 is the New 60. Ground Breaking Study. SciTech Daily
Stillman, Jessica. August 26, 2024. A Yale Scientist Says This Simple Mindset Change Helps People Live 7.5 Years Longer on Average. Inc.
De Vivo, Immaculata. March 21, 2024. The New Science of Optimism and Longevity. The MIT Press