Breaking the Age Barrier

I am not going to lie, I paid $13.50 to see "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn- Part I" this weekend. (It opened with a first weekend of $139.5 million) And between the love triangle between vampires, humans and werewolves, there is a deep theme to ponder about: the concept of living forever. 

If for some reason live under a rock and have never heard of The Twilight series, let me give you a quick recap; an awkward teenage girl falls in love with a 104 year old vampire. Vampires live forever while humans do not.  She wants to become immortal (become a vampire) in order to live with him forever.

Living forever (or at least for a very long time) is not as uncommon as we think anymore.  Every year Los Angele's Department of Recreation and Parks throws a birthday celebration, Legacy Luncheon, for its oldest residents. Youngest age of the celebrants? 90.  The oldest attendee? 104.  Now that is old.  Especially compared to the average life expectancy of the world population to be a mere 70.6 years old.

Compare that with the United States Social Security full benefits age of 67.  Our generations are living longer and longer thanks to modern day medicine, technology and just education on how to take care of ourselves.  This might seem awesome and great for us and future generations, but is it really?

After a certain age, I personally think I would just get bored with life.  Although we can slow down the aging process, we cannot stop it (or at least not yet anyways).  I think there would be only so many years I could live in a wheelchair, not be able to eat anything I wanted because all my teeth have fallen out or not being able to see and hear as well as I once could.

What is so great about life is that there is a time limit.  Going against a clock forces us to experience as much as we can and truly live life to its full potential.  If time was limitless, why would you ever experience anything when it could just be procrastinated?

While living longer does have its benefits (seeing grandchildren and great grandchildren, experiencing more, seeing history change, etc) I do appreciate the process of aging.  It makes life so much more appreciative and I am thankful I am alive.