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June 17, 2004

What will we be doing at 101?

What will we be doing if we're that old?

I read the following on Yahoo! News today. Normally a story like this
wouldn't elicit much from me. Read the story next and see what I'm
talking about.

101 year-old Frank Moody, right, is congratulated by an
unidentified parachutist, after a tandem skydive in Cairns Australia,
Wednesday, June 16, 2004. Moody, after accepting a drunken dare from
friends, jumped from more than 9,900 feet and is expected to enter the
record books as the oldest skydiver ever, beating the previous record
held by a 94-year-old Norwegian man set in 1999.

Now, one of the first thoughts I have is that the guy is just a drunken idiot. The risk of life and limb for someone that age to skydive, well it must be somewhat higher than younger folk. Of course I may be mostly sterotyping here.

To his credit, he did tandem dive, which is I'm certain required for any first time jumper. There is at least some confidence in the fact that if you are going to be killed in a recreational activity, that there is a seemingly knowledgeable and experienced expert willing to do it with you.

I've never sky dived, though would like too - I have bungie jumped from a hot air balloon, though that was years ago.

Anyway, the part of this story I like is just that a 101 year-old man would even consider, let alone succeed in such a task. God bless anyone who can live that long, we all have a limited set of years here, and if any one of us gets 100 of them, that alone is special.

More than the bragging rights generated by this man, for telling his friends to put that in their pipe, it has got to be an intrinsic pleasure to still be extracting every ounce of what life has to offer. Just being around at 100 is a great thing, but living
while you are here is even better.

Posted by gcrgcr at June 17, 2004 9:20 AM

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