Health Matters

 If all deaths with pre-existing underlying health conditions are ruled out, then the recent virus pandemic, would have had virtually no impact.  Those who invariably died, were those who were dying already -- in long term care centers, nursing homes, 55+ complexes, etc.  That's where they go to die as comfortably as possible -- and it is miraculous when they do recover from their latest health crisis.  It will be one thing or another until that fatal time.

Obviously, it makes greater sense than ever, not to get into that condition of ill-health and the unrelenting downward spiral -- that offers no hope for recovery -- only to keep one alive at the lowest level of functioning for as long as possible.  I think most people would prefer not to live their lives in that prolonged declining state -- especially if that is purchased at the cost of all the vibrant and viable lives being sacrificed -- for the dying.

So it is not surprising when a nation that has the most people living longer with essentially terminal conditions and prognoses, has the highest mortalities of such people.  They would have long perished under more subsistence cultures and societies -- as part of the normal life expectancy.  So it should come as no surprise, that those who are healthier, have a much greater prognosis for continuing vibrancy and robustness -- which is the possibility and inevitability of health in the 21st century -- and not simply living longer lives in continuing and accelerating deterioration.

Those outcomes are not automatic -- nor random, but what each individual does to make themselves better and more fit to take on anything they may have to face in life.  Of course, the great advantage goes to those who remain and attain greater health -- and not simply more comprehensive health care coverage.  That won't offset the increasingly poor underlying health -- because that is not the doctor's job.  Their province is just to treat one's sickness -- and not to achieve optimal health, which is a possibility just now stirring in people's minds as an actual possibility for the future.

Especially for us 70 or older, who really have nothing to lose by diverging from those norms -- in which people continue to get worse with age, as the age-related diseases, including death. I think it would be preferable to live 30 healthy, vibrant, robust years, and then die suddenly by not waking up one day, than to die slowly and obviously over the whole 30 years -- and dragging everybody else into the grave with them -- but that's just me, and I don't presume to speak for others, and how they think they have a right to everybody else's life as well.

I spent the first half of my life around world-class athletes and performers, and then my second half around the senior, disabled and dying -- and wondered if there could be an Olympics just for being as healthy as one can be at 100 -- as the finish line, and that was all that was required to achieve the title of First Citizen (to reach 100 without looking like 100).  That to me, is the milestone we have to achieve before it is meaningful to speak of increasing life spans any further -- as a few astute in other arenas of life also recognize.

That achievement would not be simply a random event, but a very deliberate one -- and after initially breached, would then become the template for everyone else -- as what we have to do to live a healthy life, as long as possible.  That should make uncommon good sense to everybody -- and not just the people peddling panaceas for every conceivable condition. 

Usually, if one thing improves one health, it works for many other symptoms as well.  That is one's underlying health condition -- which can be favorable, as well as unfavorable, and eventually hopeless and terminal -- if not reversed.  Unlike time, health can go either way -- to get better, or only to get worse -- depending on the health model and paradigm.  It's not too early in the 21st century, to note a trend to improving health -- with age, rather than just the familiar deterioration from here on out.

Obviously, the problem has been the invariable accumulation of toxins and waste products, rather than a healthy life's rejuvenation and renewal processes -- in eliminating and even recycling those resources.  Such people seem to have a fountain of youth within them -- so that when one day they pass, there are no regrets for a life not fully lived.  They always did their best -- for however long that was to be.  But eventually, even they too will pass -- because that is the nature and reality of life.  Unfortunately, many have not come to grips with those realities -- but demand that they should live forever -- even in an induced coma until a cure for whatever ails them, can be found.

However, more often than not, they could have cured themselves -- by mastering their understanding of the factors that have gone into their condition, and entertaining the alternatives -- diet, exercise, and lifestyle, and not just the ones that don't work, and don't make a difference -- but are highly marketed, and repeated.  Mere repetition, is not proof of any truth.  It needs to be proved in the actuality of each life.  That is not the anecdotal, but the real -- the actual individual experience, and outcome.

That those outcomes are not equal -- should tell us something, and not that we can just mandate that all races should finish in a tie -- no matter how much we have to handicap all participants to ensure that result.  Much effort and all the resources can be diverted to approximate that effect -- or one can examine more closely, why each experienced a different result, and what they could have done differently -- for a different result.  That is the real world most of us live in -- and not the bureaucratic one of one-size-fits-all, no matter how badly.

That is the world of greater discrimination -- and not less, or none.  The ability to tell those differences, is our highest achievement, and not simply repeating what one is instructed to do unvaryingly -- despite none of the desired results and favorable outcomes.  If that doesn't change, then everybody just gets wiped out -- indiscriminately.  However, when 99% of the people do survive, then one wants to be among that majority, rather than the dying -- though at that point, it seldom matters, and makes a huge difference.  One percent of the population can always be expected to die -- with or without any complicating factors.

The reality is that nobody lives forever -- but most people live long enough to achieve whatever they set out in life to accomplish.  Far fewer still, can reinvent their lives to sustain themselves longer -- for another generation.  If they can, then they rightfully should live forever.  They've certainly earned it.  That means relearning everything at least every generation -- because what limited previous generations, was not that they had perfect knowledge -- but an imperfect one.  That is no reason to quit and give up -- and resolve never to change again, because that has dire consequences.

Many have not changed -- for the last 50 years, but continue to think they are at the forefront of the consciousness revolution.  All they think they need is one more reunion and revival -- to keep their lives going.  But life is not like that -- endlessly repeating itself.  It moves on -- with or without you.  Each can simply do their best -- if they are so disposed, or their worst, if they are so disposed.  But in any case, the outcomes will not be the same -- but differ according to merit.  Good ideas are rewarded, while bad ideas are punished -- and extinguished.  They don't work no matter how lavishly funded.  That which works, takes on a life of its own, no longer requiring our nurturance, but carrying us towards a great future -- if we simply let it.

That is the familiar rise and fall of civilizations -- which have a life of its own -- greater than the sum of its parts.  Underneath it all, is the unifying theme that there is a reason things happen -- or don't.  Finding that out, is what science is -- and not just what authorities say is the truth that should never be questioned, even if they have to censor and suppress all the alternatives themselves.  There have always been people like that.