How long do you want to live?

One of my friends recently asked me if I wanted to live long (80+ years) or have more fun and probably live a shorter life – 60-70 years? The first thought that came to my mind was – I want to live a healthy life – be it long or short. I would consider myself pretty lucky if I can go about all my daily chores without outside help till my last breath. That’s that!

YOLO (or You Only Live Once) is a pretty widespread phenomenon on the internet these days. People use the idea to justify almost anything – from drugs to rash driving to dangerous adventures etc. etc. I do not intend to say that a fun filled life might be necessarily short but that’s the general assumption basis simple probability – Who would live more in your opinion – a person who eats home food, goes to office every day, doesn’t take any unnecessary risks and shuns all recreational drugs or a hippie who wanders randomly and doesn’t mind alcohol or other drugs! Bingo.

Let’s talk about drugs – and when I say drugs I mean chemicals which are addictive and have a long term negative impact on your health. To my mind, you are simply pressing the self-destruct button by doing powerful chemical drugs for recreational purposes –it might be a fun filled adventurous high but would you really be in control or would you just live for your next hit? The momentary high you feel may not be worth surrendering your life to these substances. Infact, you need to equally careful with the ‘legal’ drugs – alcohol, caffeine, prescription drugs, opiods, steroids – don’t let the legality bias your opinion – your doctor might be prescribing you equally addictive substances and the big pharma menace is for real. An informed choice is important!

Another way of living on the edge is travelling to places considered to be risky – that high altitude trek, remote uninhabited places, jungles etc. etc. The perception of risk is extremely subjective – living in a city breathing the heavily polluted air seems worse to me than undertaking a high altitude trek in the midst of pristine nature. Road accidents kill more people (not just numbers but percentage wise too) than accidents in the air but most people consider traveling by air riskier. The point is everybody thinks differently and have their own ideas of risk and these may or may not be connected to longevity of life on an average.

Our moral values and education put a long life on a high pedestal – everybody around us seem to live as long a life as possible. But for what? The same people are stuck with the same daily chores every day and their lives are governed by their watches – everything has to be done at the specific time of the day – get up, get ready, breakfast, travel to office/factory, work, lunch, work, travel back, dinner, sleep! People usually have grand ideas and crazy dreams but what they say and what they do is very different – I learnt pretty quickly that actions do say louder than words. If we have just one life and we want to live long, then why aren’t we running like we are on fire towards our wildest dreams? Jim Carrey calls this fear disguised as practicality – we hold ourselves back in an effort to make practical (read safe) decisions. Then why do you really wish for a long life? – just because you fear death or probably hope to still accomplish all your unfinished dreams post 70 or 80 when there’s probably little strength left in your bones.

Where I seem to draw the line personally is not causing mortal risk to others for the sake of enjoyment (Rash or drunk driving is a big no!) and addiction to substances which might start controlling you – caffeine being one of them! Even this is very ambiguous at times – Am a travel addict and the need to go to offbeat places does control me to some extent but atleast I can make a conscious choice with such addictions. I am still figuring out which addictions are right for me.

I don’t care if my life is long or short as long as I am healthy and following my dreams, however impractical they seem on the surface. It just needs to be meaningful to me – full of experiences, surprises, adventures and questions!

 What about you? 

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