This Is What We're Doing Now.

We tout longer life expectancy as a marker of human improvement, along with decreasing poverty rates, increased literacy, less infant death, etc., because we consider a longer life, the longer the better, an objective good. It’s hard to argue with that. 100 years ago, at my age I’d probably only have a few years left if I hadn’t already died of a heart attack—but now I have a pretty good chance at 20-25 more years. Which is very nice. I’m not ready to go.

But here’s the thing I’m learning about longer life expectancy. It means a population at an advanced age where they need a great deal of attention and care and help (the science of living longer is further along than the science of preventing physical aging), just when the people they’re most dependent on for their care, probably their children, are starting to deteriorate quickly, with bad knees, bad backs, arthritis, lowering energy levels, decreasing power of memory and concentration.

And in my case, a late career abundance of work, and the sense that I am a better artist—certainly a busier artist—than I have ever been, alongside a stark awareness that my powers are slipping and time is limited—so, an urgent call to work now and fast.

Of course as soon as I write this, I can think of a hundred factors that make the situation vastly more complicated than my easy formulation, which is more than anything just an expression of how I feel this morning. And to contradict my whole theory: My sister, who is only a few years younger than I but much more fit, doesn’t drink or smoke, eats well, and has always loved to exercise, has experienced no apparent lessening of strength or energy and her back and knees seem to be fine. Do with that information what you will.