I RECENTLY read an article regarding a study by the University of Chicago’s Center on Aging, saying that a person born to a mother aged 25 years and below has a strong chance of reaching his 100th birthday.
While that’s news, the question is, who wants to live that long?
I was born to a young mother myself, but this report about having the opportunity to live long does not thrill me at all. First, there are numerous life-threatening diseases that come with old age, such as vision and hearing loss, osteoporosis, arthritis, stroke and Alzheimer’s disease (senility).
Aside from the fact that one’s relatives and close friends are probably dead by the time one reaches the age of 100, this country has endless problems one wouldn’t want to live long to see again and again.
A year ago, an impeachment case was filed against the President alleging that she cheated in the elections. The impeachment case was eventually defeated in the lower house. Now, the President’s opponents have again filed an impeachment case with nearly the same allegations. If the impeachment case is again defeated, its supporters may resort to people power, a coup, or God knows what, to oust the President. Sooner or later we might have a new head in Malacañang, who would stand on the same shaky ground.
This trend may go on every year, and by the time I reach 100, the Philippines will have changed its President for 80 times and Congress will have filed the same number of impeachment cases.
Now there is this threat of nuclear warfare from North Korea. Our country, even in a hundred years, may never develop even a high-tech nuclear detector that could forecast the missiles. What’s more, North Korea has implicitly provoked the United States, a country hell-bent on eradicating weapons of mass destruction, which it has aplenty.
If this is the case, then I’d rather choose to die early than live for a hundred years just to witness what’s left of the earth after a nuclear war.
Lastly, the whole world never seems to run of terrorists who wreak havoc in places like the train stations in London and Spain. Since these terrorists and suicide bombers are glorified by their kin after their deaths, I would rather be a suicide bomber myself and decimate all terrorists rather than live a hundred years just to get massacred by them.
But don’t get me wrong. I am not against life nor do I object to its preservation. Nor am I pessimistic about the hopes of a better future. My point is, this crazy world is so full of many unexpected dangers and unavoidable hazards that would make a person, who can live for a hundred years, regret the fact that he can live that long.
Do you want to live for a hundred years?
