Forget to Die

Mike sent me another great article about longevity.  You know those stories of clusters of centarians?  Apparently, this is often a case of a community of folks without birth certificates or other records to verify their ages thinking they're older than they actually are.  Many communities who thought they'd discovered keys to long life may have found other treasures-- like greater health into old age-- but weren't necessarily living longer on average.

The communities where people were verifiably living significantly longer than the rest of us are geographically far and culturally distinct.  The common factor is that folks are happy.  The researchers were curious to discover the underpinning of happiness.  A few trends emerged-- these folks all slept as much as they wanted.  People woke naturally and spent a few hours in their garden.  They took another nap in the afternoon, and then stayed up well into the evening spending time with friends.  Sufficient, naturally dictated rest greatly aided health.  The diets in all regions varied, but were mainly plant-based and locally sourced.  Even though unemployment was as high as 40% in some of these regions, most had access to natural resources, like land to garden.  This kept people outside, moving, and purposeful.  None of these communities exercised in any contrived way, but rather had plenty of movement integrated into their days.

All asked also reported healthy, regular sex lives.  (Kevin has some great stories of 70 year old guys making the same claims.  It always makes me laugh though-- "honey, I need sex.  It's important for my health!")  There were also strong cultural ties that created intact communities.  Most people lived inter-generationally allowing elders to play a role and younger generations to have stronger familial ties.  People had community, tradition, and a sense of belonging.

The reporters found that part of why these communities maintained these factors on a whole was due to isolation.  The Greek island was subject to winds that made it undesirable as a shipping port.  I think there was a similar condition in Japan.  Given that these communities were slightly isolated, larger trends to schedule, seek "convenience," and change diet weren't encountered.  If any one factor was removed, the whole disintegrated.  However, because diet, schedule, movement, and community continued to be reinforced, community members enjoyed greater health and well-being without even noticing how much their lives contrast to those of much of the rest of the planet.

Writing this I immediately think of the Nearings.  They too lived to be centarians and they lived very similarly to these communities experiencing collective longevity.  This reminds me that none of us has to live on an enchanted island.  It may be slightly more challenging, but we can realize some of these same benefits by appropriating these behaviors wherever we are.

I feel like it's important to make a distinction here-- I have never been interested in long life for long life's sake.  My greatest interest is a purposeful life.  If quality of life is great, than I adore the possibility to experience more of that satisfaction.  This is exactly the mutually enforcing parallel of these centarians-- they continue to live because living continues to be pleasurable.

I ran through the list for longevity-- I'd like to get some more rest but a part from that I think I'm well on my way to fruitful golden years!  Here's to years of happiness!