Saturday, September 20, 2008

live long or live well

I noticed that the world's oldest living man just turned 113.  It seems when stories are written about folks who reach such advanced ages they always talk about what they eat and what they attribute their longevity to.  In this case, Tomoji Tanabe of Japan favors vegetables, but he likes shrimp and drinks milk every day.  I wonder what the quality of life is, say from age 95 to age 113?  Certainly I was impressed that Mr. Tanabe wants to live another 10 years.  If I were to double my current lifespan I'd be close to Mr. Tanabe's age.  I don't really expect to live another 56 years and I don't particularly want to go quite that long.  But sometimes I think the focus is off a bit.  Regardless of how long we live, we have the opportunity to have a quality day each day.  Good health and proper nutrition may well lead to a long lifespan, but more importantly these habits can enhance our "todays".  For some reason our minds often tend to run to the future or lag behind in the past.  I was also intrigued to read that, until recently, Mr. Tanabe kept a daily diary.  It seems that he had long savored the daily experience of living.  I suppose the thought I'm entertaining is the blessing we have of extracting just as much life as we possibly can today...and leave the number of todays up to the One who has them numbered already.
 
Psalm 139:16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
       All the days ordained for me
       were written in your book
       before one of them came to be.
 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
       How vast is the sum of them!
 
blessings,
Rob Smith

1 comment:

  1. on that note, i think i'll be eating a lot more vegetables and cutting back on a few other things... i'm sure he must have good genes too

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