'Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain,
You are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today,
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you,
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun'.
Roger Waters - Time
I have this notion of living to be 100 years old. And if f I’m honest, I’m not really sure why. It could be that I want to join 15,000 people that are 100 years old or more, a bit like the 100 marathon club for old age or that it will give me the opportunity of living a long and meaningful existence with enough time to tick all of my bucket list wants.
Now, at 61 years and 126 days into my life’s innings, I’m already 61.34% into that 100-year journey, To give the remaining 38.66% some kind of perspective and I thought I’d condense the 100 years into just one and try to get some perspective on the longevity of life..
And if you follow my logic - if the 365 days were to represent the 100 years, and I was born at one second past midnight on New Year’s Day and lived to midnight on New Year’s Eve, right now, my age means I’ve already reached August 12th.
Yikes, what a thought - I’m kinda in the mid-summer of my existence already; half-way through my month eight out of twelve!
So, I looked at some key dates. The first week of January is lost as no-one can really remember their first two years of their life and as I didn’t start school until I was 5 that got me to 18th of January. When I left school at 18, that became 6th March and my eldest daughter who is now 35, was born on the 5thApril.
As for running marathons, I’ve only been doing that since 28th April, although my next significant birthday (70) works out at 12th September with my 80th and 90th will take me to the end of October and November respectively, a very gloomy thought, which means I only have the rest of August to get things done.
Talk about ‘Tempus Fugit’.
You see, Roger Waters summed it up perfectly with the ‘you are young and life is long’ line. It seems like that when you are young only it’s not when, by the age of 40 and you’ve already reached the second May Bank Holiday, and we know how rubbish that can be.
Now before you calculate where your age puts you and you get all depressed, I’ll try and put a positive spin on this. Maybe it doesn’t matter how long you are on the planet as long as you give whatever time you do have 100% forget the 100 years as my chances of getting there are just over 10% being a male born in 1962. Getting to 12th August has had its up and downs but I feel like I’ve had great value for money so far, and I’m looking forward to making the most of my Autumn and Winter years otherwise what’s the point of getting to 100 just to get your letter from King William V by then I would imagine.
What are you living for?
1,159 Marathons - 22,399 out of 36525 days complete
