Harold - A Full Life

FTLComm - Tisdale - May 25, 2001

Harold is a genuine hero, a modern man who was born in April of 1900. He married and shared his life with his wife for seventy-six years, they had two children now in their eighties. When Harold got to be seventy-one he decided to take up golf and that very first year he shot a remarkable hole in one. Since then Harold's total of hole-in-ones has reached six, that last one coming just last week at his home course in Florida where he normally plays eighteen holes a day. Harold wowed the media when they heard about his latest hole and one and video of his golf swing is as slick and smooth as Tiger Woods. That is a valid driver license Jay Leno is holding at the top of the page and indeed this 101 year old man drives his car day and night. He claims it isn't hard you just keep it between the lines. Thanks to Jay Leno and NBC we got to listen to this man in a remarkable interview last night on the Tonight Show from which I borrowed these pictures so that you might appreciate one of the most important guys to come along in a long time.

Not only is Harold a man of the past and present but it looks like we can expect him to be the man of the future. The life expectancy data is suggesting that we are living in an age where living to and past a hundred years old is no longer a fluke but is becoming more and more common. Good food, the decline of widespread epidemics and better treatment for minor ailments could be making the difference. Perhaps the most important thing about Harold and others like him is the quality of life. Living to be very old has not always been considered such a good thing because for so many people they live on but their lives are ravaged with illness, immobility and care homes. The startling occurance of many people living active healthy lives is becoming more and more common. We can see this in our own communities and when you look at the lives of the seniors

of today it is important to see that they are doing the same sorts of things everyone else is doing. Jay Leno asked Harold about "Viagra" and Harold said: "I don't need it." When you consider this example of a full life we have to come to terms with what this phenomena will do to society. How will we adapt to large numbers of people living on happily long past their earning years, and will we see the age of retirement move hirer so that society can make use of the wisedom and knowledge of people like Harold? To really think this issue through realise the impact of we the baby boomer generation will have on the economy as we retire and what will our spending habits and savings do to the economic conditions of our world? These effects have already kicked in and few economist have realised the impact that will result from this change in the age of society as a whole. As for each of us on an individual basis we have to change the way we think about our lives, what we can expect to do, the skills we need and the benefits of being able to look back clearly on a longer life. We each much re-evaluate the way we think about old age. Harold is important, we can not all be like him, but more of us then ever before will have better and longer lives.