Living Long, Or Not

>I had a dream.
>
>In this dream a disembodied voice of great authority repeatedly told
>me that I would live to be 135-years-old.
>
>In the dream I would repeatedly scoff at this prophecy pointing out
>that I lived, what some say is, a reckless life. I don't worry about
>health and diet. I eat what is put before me. I accept dynamic
>uncertainty.
>
>In this dream I repeatedly replied to this voice-with-authority saying
>that its prophecy was ludicrous - impossible.
>
>And yet this disembodied-voice-of-authority would repeatedly assure me
>that I would live to be 135-years-old.
>
>I'm not banking on it.
>
>Perhaps it's like Fedallah's prophecies to Ahab (see Moby Dick) or the
>witches prophecies to MacBeth. I am being no more nor no less reckless
>in light of this dream.
>
>Little more than a month ago I was almost dead (see www.libbyhome.blogspot.com).
>
>I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in late May. In my
>googling I am told that it is possible to live many years after a
>diagnosis, and yet 50 percent of those diagnosed with congestive heart
>failure are dead within five years.
>
>I don't think I will be among that 50 percent of us heart failures who
>are dead within five years. I have a supple heart. I feel good.
>
> And yet - you got to at least consider it.
>
>At the same time consider rhesus monkeys who are part of an experiment
>on aging at the University of Wisconsin. Some are given a restricted
>diet with 30 percent fewer calories than is considered normal while
>some get to eat whatever they please.
>
>The two decades old experiment is demonstrating that caloric
>restriction slows aging in primates. While just 13 percent of the
>dieting monkeys have died of old age, 37 percent of the feasting
>monkeys are dead of old age.
>
>Pictures of the monkeys on radical diets show unhappy, starved,
>emaciated creatures
>
>Of course pharmaceutical corporation scientists are looking for a pill
>that would duplicate the effects of starvation. And they have found
>resveratrol, which is in red wine.
>There are resveratrol pills already commercially available.
>
>This all raises the possibility that the life span of primates,
>particularly us Human primates, can be extended by 30 percent or more.
>It's possible a time may come when 135-year-olds wouldn't be
>particularly unusual.
>
>I'm not banking on it - and yet it is something to be considered.
>
>I fear that for many it would be more years of being dead in life,
>imprisoned in business-as-usual, (b-a-u), corporation agenda, doing
>work that you hate to buy things that you don't need.
>
>And yet it could be the possibility of time to be spent as Mawlana
>Jalal-al Din Rumi advices - "Start a huge, foolish project, like
>Noah...
>
>It makes absolutely no difference what people think of you."