If you could live to be 100, would
you? Explain (and justify) your answer
by responding to this quote, p. 137 in Barry:
“Does life shine brighter because it is such a brief candle? Are we driven to improve our lot, personally
and collectively, because we have so little time? Such imponderables elevate immortality to a
new level of moral gravity.” Use
specific class readings, films, discussions (in class & on the blog) in
constructing your answer.
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ReplyDeleteI would love to live to be 100 years old if I could remain 25 years old the entire time. Unfortunately, time has its effects on us and being 100 years old is really pushing it. Not too many people live to be 100 and even fewer make it past. I feel the quality of life at that age must be minimal, and this is a huge deal for me. I need to be a fully functioning human being. I need to be physical and thoughtful and deep. Rotting away as a vegetable is no life for me. Even if I was in "good health for my age" that is still not the life I want to live. What would that even entail? If I could remain 25 forever, I would never want to die. I would love to be able to watch the world develop and see how it changes. And go to space and discover new worlds. Philosophically, I feel there wouldn't be too much of a difference between living to be 80 and living to be 100. I might get to see more of the world develop but I’ll be seeing from inside a bedroom. On a screen looking in from the outside and not truly getting to experience the world and live fully.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that I would like to live to be 100 years old. Although I think that it would be amazing to be able to see how the world changes throughout my time, I feel that I wouldn't be able to enjoy some of the changes as I got towards 100. Unfortunately, as we age we lose many of the abilities that we had when we were young. If I were to live that long, I would want to be able to live my life carefree and when one gets older and older it becomes increasingly more difficult to do so.
ReplyDeleteI believe that living until I am 100 years old would not be very fulfilling. Once I reach an age where I can not do all of the things that I want to do my life will start to lose its quality. Being able to live until I am 100 would be great if I am able to live life fully and not having to have everyone else do things for me that I should be able to do myself. This goes back to the conversation that we had in class about wanting to live a long life or to live a shorter life that is high in quality.
ReplyDeleteLiving to 100 would be a great accomplishment physically being that you lived your life the best way you knew how and one should be rewarded. Age should have no limitation for any activity including death. Why would you not want to live as long as you could? I do understand that being functional and able to do things for yourself plays a role in decisions but if you were able to walk, talk and function then so be it. Live life to its fullest! Most place a stigma on the aged thinking that one automatically cant do anything for themselves. That is stereotyping based on age and we must not view life in that manor. I take care of a lady who is 105 and she can walk, eat and do things very well for herself. I am a huge advocate in taking care of yourself from birth though your adult life and the way you take care of yourself now will be the indicator of how you live when you are older.
ReplyDeleteI agree that living life to 100 is a great accomplishment and that it is very possible for to move around and eat pretty well. But would you really want to be around if all your friends,your partner, and loved ones are not around anymore?
DeleteJonna, thank you for replying to my post. I would love to be around and carry on the legacy. Being alone or without anyone does not always indicate that a person would be sad. And who is to say that the elderly do not make friends who are their age. It is easy to assume that everyone we know will be dead if we reach 100 but that is not always the case. Thanks again for the post.
DeleteI agree that it would be a great accomplishment physically to live to 100. But psychologically it is known that depression sets in quickly once a spouse dies and after being with someone for so long I feel that losing that person would put me over the edge even in the 80's. Living to 100 I feel, even with being able to walk and talk, that there would be too many restrictions and not enough enjoyment in life to make it fulfilling. It is easy to look at a 105 year old and say they are doing well because they can walk and eat by themselves, but what kind of life is that where it is impressive to walk and eat? On the flip side it is impressive to see toddlers walk and eat by themselves but they have a whole life ahead of them, where as a 100 year old doesn't have much life left, making decision pretty simple. The only reason to live at that point is for loved ones, and once I am widowed, and family stops visiting so much, I feel that life would not be satisfying enough to live to 100.
DeleteI agree that elderly can make friends, but can those new friendships really fill the void of the old ones and the family members you have lost. Like Derek said once you stop getting visitors its hard to not feel lonely.
DeleteThanks Derek and Jonna for your thoughts and opinions but all I am reading is that when you get to be a 100 everything you do and even relationships are not worth living for? And that at 80 years old, Derek you just would rather die due to that is the age cap where you believe life stops being meaningful and productive? Have you spoken to anyone who is close to 100? I was not implying that being able to walk and talk is the ONLY thing that my 105 patient can do just simply giving an example of how she has a great life at her age. How do you know there will be restrictions? How can you truly assume the life would be not worth living? Not all elderly are depressed. The reasons you stated for why YOU would want to continue are NOT reasons why ALL would wish to not live till 100. Secondly, saying it is impressive to see toddlers walk and eat by themselves and comparing it to a person who is 100 is age discrimination saying that the person who is 100 should just die due to they will anyway compared too the toddler who has there while life ahead of them. We have to be careful and embrace all stages of developments and take into account that no one person is alike and our reasons for or against are not for everyone.
DeleteThanks again for replying!
Not many people can say they lived to be 100 years old. I do enjoy life and would like to live a long fulfilling life. I disagree with the quote listed above, “Does life shine brighter because it is such a brief candle? Are we driven to improve our lot, personally and collectively, because we have so little time? Such imponderables elevate immortality to a new level of moral gravity.” I believe those who live a shorter life try to fit in more experiences lose some of the meaning of life. Life is not measured by the amount of experiences we have, but the time we spend in genuine true emotion. Vacations are fun and a great experience, but when I die I want to say I enjoyed the people I spent my time with more than I want to say I enjoyed the Earth I spent my time on. Time is the only way to have more genuine experiences with the ones you love.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this completely. I would want to enjoy my time and take all of my experiences in rather than try to cram many experiences in a short amount of time. Would one even really truly experience much by doing that? Loved ones will always be important to me and the ones I wish to share experiences with.
DeleteYea I would like to live to 100 to be able to reach the accomplishment of living for a century. I would also want though to live too 100 if my quality of life is still pretty good. Also if some of my loved ones were still around as well. I think it would be really hard to live that long and feel lonely at the same time. To answer one of Barry's questions I do think we try to improve because of our short life span. We want to make life better for our future generations to make sure the human race keeps on existing.
ReplyDeleteI would like to live to 100 mostly for my family. I understand that my quality of life may not be at its best. My hearing and vision will have declined at this point, and I will be probably have arthritic pain that is unbearable. This is all assuming I have no other health issues going on. However, I would love to be around to meet my great grandchildren and to experience life with them. Not a lot of people have this privilege and it would be such an accomplishment to do so.
ReplyDeletei was just discussing this with my great grandmother, she just had her 93 birthday and she is still very active, still drives occasionally and still lives on her own and is very self sufficient. She is an integral part of our family, when her husband passed away last year she made it clear she wasn't going anywhere until she saw her great great grandchildren from me! i could see her easily living to 100, because we all need her, and she knows it.
Deletei discussed this in my gallery talk for my show actually. i don't want to live forever because I'm afraid of dying, but i do want to live forever because i spend hours dreaming about what or future will be like. i have unrealistic hopes though. Ideally, i would love to travel with the Doctor! :) i hold so much hope in the fact that our society will be better, more accepting and more fulfilling than it is now. i want to watch or world grow. i want to be around for the discovery of life beyond our own. I believe in reincarnation so i do believe that i will see many generations of progress, but with a new mind and body. and i am at peace with that and i know that when my time comes i won't wish for more. i don't want to live any longer than my body and mind find me capable.
ReplyDeleteI would love to live to be 100 if it meant not suffering. If I were on life support and it was a month before my 100th birthday and I had no chance of getting better, than no I probably would not. however, I would love to live a long life and have many great experiences. I would make the decision of a qualitative life over quantitative no matter what though.
ReplyDeleteI agree that life is full of great experiences, but I also see what you mean when you say you would rather enjoy life than live longer but be miserable. If you aren't miserable, though, life can be great. There are new experiences everyday to look forward to and you never know what might happen next.
DeleteI would enjoy living to be 100. I don't believe that life shines brighter because it is a brief candle, or at least not for me. I do my best to live life to the fullest, but I am not doing that with death in mind. I am taking one day at a time. I love the feeling of having a really good day and the feeling of being happy. I believe that if humans could live to be 200, there would still be happy days to look forward to living out. In class we would discuss how if we are sick and dying, we could take our own lives because it is inevitable anyway. I would never do this. I don't know what is going to happen the next day. If the doctors say I'm going to die in 24 hours, I don't know what is going to happen in those 24 hours. Just like I don't know what would happen between the ages of 1 and 100. Living out each day of my life one by one means going through and waking up hoping that I am going to be happy. Sometimes it doesn't always happen, but assuming the worst would make life miserable. I do look forward to the future too. There are things that I can't wait to happen. What if my 100th birthday is the day I finally get to go to Paris, France? Life has a strange way of doing things, and I want to stick around as long as possible to see how it plays out.
ReplyDeleteIt all depends on what shape I'm in; If I am lying on a hospitable bed hooked up to a respirator, a heart machine, and a food tube, no I wouldn't want to live to be 100. However, if I am still able to walk somewhat, talk and be around my family, I wouldn't want to miss a minute of it. Living to be 100, still is not enough time on this earth; no matter how old we live to be, we will never have as much time as we would like to have. No, I do not belief life is better when it is shorter. When I thought about my answer I thought back on the first film we watched in class where there were many people old and younger, hooked up to machines to prolong their life; and I do not see why anyone would want that for themselves if they are never going to get better. I also thought back to the quaker who came to visit, and how his Grandma starved herself to death at age 81. She wasn't even 100 when she wanted her life to end; therefore, age really isn't the issue at hand. It comes down to physical and emotional health at any age. I guess in the end, if my will was to live until 100, I would do it, and make the most out of every second.
ReplyDelete