Letters for George: Mysteries of the Circle of Life Revealed

Dear George,

Today is my eightieth birthday. That’s a shock, though there’s not much I can do about it. Everybody in the world who was born on July 21, 1937, turns eighty today, whether they like it or not. I find it much easier to visualize my grandfather at eighty since that’s the last age I remember him at. Though my father lived to his mid-eighties, I imagine him in his forties (which is who he was when I lived at home as a teenager). For myself, I’m more likely to think of myself as eighteen than as eighty. Eighty just seems completely alien. I know that’s delusional, but sometimes it’s for the best.

I also get confused about the meaning of my birthday. At the moment, for example, I tend to think that I’ve just started my eightieth year and consequently am at the very beginning of my eighties. That’s totally wrong. The truth of the matter is that I’ve just finished my eightieth year (and consequently I’ve been in my eighties for a full 365 days). This becomes clear when one thinks of their first birthday. We don’t start our first year on our first birthday. Rather, we’ve finished our first year and are beginning the second. Despite my confusion, this all works out o.k. I’ve been traumatized recently about turning eighty. But then I realized I’ve actually completed my entire eightieth year. Being in my eighties, it turns out, has worked out just fine for a pretty long time.

Two days ago I was drafting this blog post at the university. It was ninety degrees out, but I still enjoyed the one-mile walk home at the end of the afternoon. Our Honda wasn’t in the driveway when I arrived, so I figured that Katja had gone to the grocery store. I was startled to find her sitting in our sun room. She was equally startled when I asked where our car was. We looked out on the street, but it was nowhere to be seen. Katja returned to the house to call the police, but I said I wanted to check down the block first. The car, of course, wasn’t down the block. On my way back it suddenly dawned on me where it was. I’d driven it to the university, parked it in the garage, left it there, and walked home. Whew, that was a relief! The next to last sentence I’d written on my office computer before I’d left was: “I’m glad that I’m still of sound mind at age eighty.”

Here are some other interesting items about being eighty.

A FEW OF THE TENS OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WHO TURNED EIGHTY THIS MONTH:

7-2-37 Richard Petty, NASCAR champion

7-6-37 Ned Beatty, Actor

7-6-37 Gene Chandler, Singer/songwriter/producer

7-6-37 Vladimir Ashkenazy, Russian pianist/conductor

7-12-37 Bill Cosby, Comedian/TV actor/sexual harasser

7-31-37 U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (Rep., NY, 1981-99)

(12) [Note: Numbers In parentheses refer to sources at end]

SOME OF THE THINGS THAT HAPPENED EIGHTY YEARS AGO (July 1937) :

July 1: The Gestapo arrested and imprisoned pastor Martin Niemöller for opposing the Nazis’ state control of German Protestant churches.

July 2: Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared after taking off from New Guineau during Earhart’s attempt to be the first woman to fly around the world.

July 7: Japanese forces invaded China in the Battle of Lugou Bridge, often seen as the beginning of World War II in Asia.

July 11: Composer George Gershwin died of a brain tumor in L.A. at age 38.

July 31: The Politburo of the Soviet Union approved an order to execute 75,950 people and send an additional 193,000 to the Gulag. (12)

OTHER EVENTS WE EIGHTY-YEAR OLDS WENT THROUGH:

The Great Depression (its later years)

World War II

The Atomic Bomb

The Korean War

Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy

McCarthyism

Roy Rogers and Gene Autry

LIFE AND DEATH TRIVIA FOR EIGHTY-YEAR OLDS:

2,203,337 people were born in the U.S. in 1937. 53.7% are alive today. (1)
The average life expectancy for an 80-year-old person today is 8.9 years. For females, it’s 9.6 years; for males, 8.1 years. (7)
The rate of cognitive impairment for people ages 75 to 79 is about 5%. Prevalence rises after age 80, approaching 20% for people 85 and over. (8)
67% of American adults report good, very good, or excellent health at ages 75-85, as do 57% at ages 85 and over. (8)

MORE FUN FACTS FOR EIGHTY-YEAR OLDS:

In 2013 80-year old Japanese alpinist-skier Yuichiro Miura became the oldest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest. (5)
The Buddha died at age 80. Just before his death he delivered his final message, then lay down between two trees. (4)
A UK survey of 300,000 adults found that life satisfaction and happiness were highest in the 65-79 age group though declining in the 80s. Persons in their 90s were comparable to those in their 20s and 30s. (3)
80 is the upper age limit for cardinals to vote in papal elections. (12)
Sweden has a greater percent of residents age eighty and over than any other country (5%). (10)

A FEW AGE EIGHTY JOKES:

So far eighty is the oldest that I’ve ever been.
You know you’ve turned eighty when you look in the mirror and say, “Dad?”
At eighty you’ll never be youthful again, but you can always be immature.
They told me in my youth that I would lose my mind by age eighty. What they forgot to tell me is that I wouldn’t miss it that much.
Eighty is a wonderful age. Especially if you’re ninety. (6, 14)

MY FAVORITE QUOTE ABOUT AGE EIGHTY:

“Inherent in architecture, it involves everything in life so that there is absolutely no end to it. By the time you’re seventy or eighty, you’re still beginning. So, that’s the kind of life I’ve preferred to being the expert at forty and dead, you know.” (John Lautner, architect) (2)

IS THIS QUOTE REALLY TRUE?

“I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow.” (Voltaire) (2)

DIVERSITY IN OLDER AGE PEOPLE:

I ran across a statement about diversity in older age from the World Health Organization that I found helpful. Paraphrased slightly, it said that, with respect to health, there is no such thing as a “typical” older person. Biological age has only a loose association with chronological age. Some 80 year-olds are very similar mentally and physically to 20 year-olds. Other seniors have experienced declines at much younger ages. There is a very wide range of experiences and needs among older people that public health responses must address. (11)

GOOD THINGS TO ME ABOUT BEING EIGHTY

I am glad to not be working. No boss, no strained relations with colleagues, no externally imposed tasks, no deadlines, no performance evaluations, no worries about failure. (When I contemplated retirement in my late sixties, I was sure that working was preferable. Now at eighty I realize that I was fooling myself.)
I find there is a lot of personal freedom at age eighty. I can pretty much select stuff each day that I enjoy doing and rarely have to deal with noxious alternatives.
All of these big birthdays involve life transitions which present new challenges and opportunities. My main goal for my eighties is to age well. I want to stay in physically fit, and I would like to keep my mind alert and active. So far, so good.

Love,

Dave

SOURCES:

(1) www.247wallst.com, “How Many People Are Alive From the Year You Were Born”

(2) www.brainyquote.com, keyword “age eighty”)

(3) www.cdc.gov, “Health, United States, 2016”

(4) www.encyclopedia.com, “Buddha”

(5) www.japantimes.co.jp, “Miura oldest to climb Everest but some facts overlooked”

(6) www.just-one-liners.com, “Age”

(7) www.life-span.healthgrove.com, “80 Year Old Life Expectancy”

(8) www.nia.nih.gov, “Growing Older in America”

(9) www.quora.com, “What Percentage of People Live to the Age of 80?”