You really caused me think here dutch baka. We die because we must. If everyone lived for 200 years or so we would overpopulate the planet and use up all its resources. We would become a "cancer" on the planet. And what is cancer but cells that never die. They just keep reproducing and reproducing until they finally destroy the one thing that is giving them life and sustaining life. If humans did not die we would become like a cancer to the earth and eventually kill it much like a cancer kills the human body.
Mycernius said:
Imagine what the world would be like if the people from the Dark ages to early middle ages where still alive today. Their world was one of superstition. Their age and experience would put them in positions of extreme power and from there could keep any new, radical ideas from poping up. Ideas that would threaten their power. I really think we would have not made the progress we have today if these people did not die. In the 20th century the Catholic Church finally recognised the teachings of Gallilo. Imagine what it would be like if the Borgias where still there?
Would anyone really want to live to be 200 years old? I wouldn't. The old has to give way to the new as Mycernius so correctly stated. All the old people I ever speak to only say, "I remember when. These young people have no idea what it was like back in my day. Things are really getting bad these days." etc.
I just turned 50 a few months ago and for the first time in my life started to give reflection on my life.
More than half my life is over. I may only have another 20-40 years remaining on this planet if I stay as healthy as I am. It's hard to comprehend in some ways, but something I have learned to accept. I know the person that is "me" will not die. Just this shell of a human body. I've witnessed many things in my life so far and hope to witness more.
-I remember when the Beetles first came to the US and played on TV
-I remember distinctly where I was and who I was with when President Kennedy, Martin Kuther King, and Robert Kennedy were asassinated.
-I remember President Kennedy's speech in Berlin at the beginning of the "Cold War"
-I remember watching on TV the live landing on the moon.
-I remember getting our first color TV and how awed we were
-I remember purchasing the first generation Walkman in Japan. The coolest thing ever invented at the time for us young kids. I still have it too!
-The Munich Olympic Massacres
-Practicing hiding under our desks at school in case an Atomic Bomb was dropped by the Russians
-Hippies, and the Antiwar movement of the late '60's. (My father used to call me a "girl" with my shoulder length hair in high school.)
-The killing of college students by US National Guardsmen at Kent State University.
-My first concert: Led Zepplin at Madison Square Garden, NY. Opening Song: Immigrant Song.
-President Anwar Sadat of Egypt being asassinated.
-Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka of Japan being arrested for the Lockheed bribary scandal
-Yen when it was 300 yen/US1$
-When Karaoke first boomed in Japan
-Having to purchase a seperate unit so I could hear the news in English on NHK TV and watch foreign movies in English (20,000 yen!)
-My first car in Japan in 1974: a 1968 Toyota Corolla (60,000 yen or US$300!)
-Disco
-Not knowing air conditioning on trains in Japan during rush hour.
-Seeing Sawada Kenji (Julie) in concert. Anyone know who he is?
-Falling in love with "Pink Lady", Matsuda Seiko, and Yamaguchi Momoe, and seeing them live in concert!
-The first VCR's. $3,000 or 1,000,000 yen
-24hr Beer, Cigarette, and Porno vending machines
-Cabs when they were 150yen for the first 2km or so and 60yen/km thereafter
-Watching live on Japanese TV The first launch and landing of the shuttle
-Playing the first computer game called "pong" in the 70's. Who remembers that?
-When my first computer was 25mhz, had 4mb of ram and a 120mb hard drive. The best of it's time. ($3,000!) I remember asking the instructor, "What happens when we reach the 120mb limit?" His reply: "That will never happen."
Mycernius is correct. The old must give way to the new or new things and technology will never advance.
I could go on and on, but I guess you get the picture.
Hell, it was 32 years ago that I first set foot in Japan for 16 glorious (well, let's be honest here, "great") years. The best years of my life! To think that I may have less than half that time remaining is quite, for lack of a better word, unbelievable. But I've accepted it as a fact of life. I could die tomorrow of a heart attack or an accident on the highway in my truck. But when I reflect on my life, it has been a good one. I've reached practically all my goals, am financially secure and do have a pretty decent life. That's pretty good considering I was on a slide into juvenile delinquicy and was probably voted in high school "The one who will probably never succeed." But life, and age, has a way of making you grow up and accept responsibility for your actions which is severly lacking today. (See, even my age is showing by that remark.)
My only remaining goal is to live my last years in Japan. Why? I don't know and cannot explain it. I may be caucasion in looks, but I am Japanese inside. Maybe I was Japanese in a previous life. I don't know. But that is my desire. If I die here in the states, my wish is to be creamated and buried in my wife's family grave in Japan along with her father (my best friend) and her other family members.
My only regret is that we didn't have any children to pass our life savings on to and to extend the familiy names. But that's what we decided on. To think about it, this will be the end of the line for both my wife's and my own family name. (My brother died last year of pancreatic cancer and he also didn't have any heirs and my wife is an only child.) In a way it's kind of sad, but maybe that's the way it's supposed to be. Life marches on regardless.
