Forum Fun Question #2
Mon, 04/04/2011 - 11:54am
The current estimated global average lifespan of a human being is 67.2 years. What if it was twice that long? What would you do differently right now if you had the capacity to live for at least 134.4 year?
Mon, 04/04/2011 - 12:28pm
#2
It's a good question. I would
It's a good question. I would imagine, like your present life, the quality would have a lot to do with how you live it. So maybe taking up jogging or something like that would not be a bad move as well. I wouldn't be so sure you wouldn't be able to work for most of that life. Old people can do a lot. But at this point you would still be in the first quarter of your life.
Mon, 04/04/2011 - 1:07pm
#3
new life in dreams
i just recently had a bit of a life epiphany. i've seen a few movies about composers (philip glass documentary, igor & coco movie, and searching for beethoven). i realized how much i love both classical and contemporary orchestral music. it pertains to this forum fun question because, it seems that many things in life are about time and time spent on doings. how much time would it take me as an adult, with where i am in my artistic abilities, to learn to play the piano, read music and write music on an orchestral scale? i have basic knowledge on the piano, very far from my want, and even further from my need of ability to be able to do such things. i have creative abilities for arranging musical instruments. these things can perhaps quicken my pace at being where i want to be on the other side of this mark. which is to read and write scores with potentially hundreds of instruments. gives me chills to think about!
in my contemplation of these ideas, i came to the conclusion, that music will the biggest part of the rest of my life. so why not set a goal to do such things with my remaining, 30+ years. what's the difference whether i have 30 years or 100? none really. social security or not. ~ shrug ~ you either do something or you don't.
Mon, 04/04/2011 - 4:07pm
#4
That's grrrrrrrrreat!
That's grrrrrrrrreat!
Tue, 04/05/2011 - 1:11pm
#5
Brian-I didn't really start
Brian-I didn't really start seriously pursuing music and songwriting until I was in my 30s (which might explain a lot to people who've heard me play!). But in any event, at that point I finally figured out that it was important to me and even moreso that the proficiency I wanted wasn't going to come by magic--that it was going to take a lot of hard work. So, I dug in. There were long periods of great frustration--alongside the songwriting I was working on learning to play jazz and in that area you would see these amazing performers ripping through some tune that I couldn't even begin to play. But eventually I did get to a point where I was able to better handle some of the stuff that previously seemed impossible. I think you pretty much summed it up in your post that no matter where you are in life you can always decide what you want to do with the rest of it. If composing for orchestras is what inspires you, then you should find a teacher asap and start working on that. There will be a lot to learn--but it's all about the process anyway, as far as I'm concerned.
Wed, 04/06/2011 - 12:38am
#6
in the immortal words of Lloyd Christmas...
"So you're sayin' there's a chance!"
Wed, 04/06/2011 - 11:00am
#7
To me the idea of living
To me the idea of living twice as long would give me a chance to at least go back to school and try getting a couple of degrees. I've always been into psychology and more lately journalism. I could dedicate a good 30 years to either of these pursuits if we were talking only a quarter of my life. I would probably also be taking Chinese lessons. The more I think about it the more comfortable I am with my musical development arc. If I lived to be this old, by then, perhaps I'd be able to write scores or maybe TV commercial jingles and to be honest neither sounds that super satisfying to me personally. I'm not really interested in being a virtuoso at any particular instrument either. I think I might have more guts to move from New York.
Wed, 04/06/2011 - 5:38pm
#8
Book..
I think I'd read Don Quixote. That would knock off at least 30 years.
Seriously though I don't think I'd do anything differently. Just live my life; Whatever you plan in life probably will never come to fruition or meet your expectations exacly so just go with the flow.
It's a little bit of a glib response I know..
I really just try and take things day by day and not live in the past or the future,just the immediate present.
Thu, 04/07/2011 - 10:52am
#9
@ mmm
you could learn chinese in a year. you could go to school and have a degree in two years. you could have a full blown masters in 6 years, that's less than 10% of your actual life expectancy. why do you feel like you need 30 years to accomplish any of those things?
Thu, 04/07/2011 - 1:38pm
#10
I understand your point but
I understand your point but I'm more interested in how time actually does affect our choices. Maybe it wouldn't take 30 years, maybe 15 or 20. I will by no means "not" die happy if I don't learn Chinese or get a degree in Psychology.
I'm pretty sure I couldn't learn Chinese in a year. Unless that's all I studied every day. And I don't want to do that. I studied French in school about 6 years for an hour a day almost and I've been to France several times and I'm far from fluent.
The other would have to do with money. Going to school would probably involve a sizable loan investment for me that would mean I would have to probably work in my field for quite a while to pay back. I feel like to truly learn chinese I'd probably need to take a couple of trips there as well, more money. Anyway, this is starting to sound like a lot of excuses and I don't like excuses so who knows maybe I'll look into some of this stuff. I guess that's sort of the point of this post.
I mean this is the tip of the iceberg really. I wish I could visit every country in the world and read every book. What I'm getting at here is how our lifespan, and how we perceive it, whether we admit it or not, does affect our choices. I mean stuff like when we only lived to be 20 or 30 it made more sense for women to have babies when they were 16 or 17. Not so much now. But as I get older I do see how long life really is and how much you can do with it.
Thu, 04/07/2011 - 8:04pm
#11
indeed, but!
now we're talkin'. "if i had 'this much' more time in my life, i would consider doing 'this' with it." - seems arbitrary. you could die tomorrow no matter how long your "life expectancy" was. you could live to one hundred and thirty. you never know when your day will come, so what do you do with the rest of your life, no matter how long it is?
i think if you studied chinese for one hour, every single day, for one year, you would have a great understanding of the language. probably even the ability to use it fluently. you don't need to go to china because china town is a few blocks away from you. and you're a smart guy, if you really wanted to learn chinese, i think you could. when studying a language in school, you're not doing it for you. you are doing it because you have to, for credits. it would be totally different for you now.
visiting every country in the world would indeed cost you. but think of what you would gain!
=)
Fri, 04/08/2011 - 1:27am
#12
I appreciate the PMA but I
I appreciate the PMA but I feel like you're not getting it.
Part of the reason I would learn Chinese is because I can see China as playing a more substantial role in this country's future. Not as much in the next 10 years as perhaps the next 30 or 40 years. I'd be much more inspired to learn it if there was even a small chance that I was going to be around during this time.
Also it's not arbitrary it's twice the length of your life now. Of course it's good to try and get the most out of every day. But the thing is we don't really do that. We have stuff like insurance and social security and savings accounts and 401k's. We don't spend all our money in one day. We don't eat chocolate for breakfast, lunch, and diner. We create a balance because we know, if we're careful and relatively healthy, chances are we'll be able to live long enough to do more of what we want, than if we just compressed it all into a short period of time. I have met people at various stages of their lives appear to be trying to live their who lives in just a couple of years. I don't often find these people to be all that happy though in the long run. It's strange. I suppose the flip side to this would be getting told you only have a few years to live. That in turn I think could end up becoming incredibly liberating.
Anyway, just think about it. If we lived twice as long we could potentially have great, great, great, grandchildren that we could play with. You could have fairly large companies that were staffed totally by peopole related to each other. Imagine how well you could get to know someone if you were married for 70 or 80 years. We could make 30 and 40 year long commitments to things like studying something or traveling and it wouldn't necessarily be a life commitment. Imagine how good you could get at the guitar if you had 50 more years to play it. I think if you can allow yourself to think about it could be quite interesting.
Fri, 04/08/2011 - 7:58am
#13
Matt
I started attending college when I was 40. My thinking was I was going to turn 50 in 10 yrs, may as well turn 50 with a college degree. I took 1 or 2 classes a semester at Suffolk County Community College due to my working & raising a family at the same time and cause it was only $90 per credit. It took me 6 yrs to earn my Associates degree and I got it with honors. I hadn't been in school for 25 yrs & I knew I'd never pass the entrance exams, so I just signed up for classes, english & math, aced those classes so I was able to by-pass the entrance exams. I didn't matriculate until my final semester.
If you want to learn chinese and/or psychology, sign up at your local community college for a class or 2 at a time to keep the costs down. Do it for your own personal enrichment. Do it cause you're going to turn 50 one day, may as well turn 50 knowing some chinese & psychology.
Fri, 04/08/2011 - 9:03am
#14
Thanks Jeannie. What would
Thanks Jeannie. What would you do if you had 80 more years to live?
Fri, 04/08/2011 - 10:29am
#15
Kill myself! (that's a joke
Kill myself! (that's a joke son)
Seriously, I dunno. I'm really loving the retired life so I know I wouldn't want to work anymore, that means money would be an issue & I'd have to earn an income somehow, which means returning to work.
I debate going back to college to get my BA, but my schedule now is pretty full of activities so I don't really have the time, or the inclination, to return at this time. Besides, if I get the BA I'd want to put it to some use, ie. a job where I can utilize what I learned, but the idea of returning to the work force.......
I'd love to travel more, maybe go back to Europe, but you know what they say, there's no place like home, besides, that takes me back to the money issues...
Geez, it seems like if you're going to live that long a life you better have the financial means to do so. I wouldn't want to be 120 years old & having to worry about putting a roof over my head and/or food on my table, not to mention worrying about the same things for my kids, grandkids, etc.
I've always loved what Lynn Redgrave said about death. She said she wanted to die of laughter on her 95th birthday. Sounds like a plan to me!
Fri, 04/08/2011 - 5:38pm
#16
Maybe you could find a way to
Maybe you could find a way to make money doing some kind of work that you enjoy? 80 years is a long time. You could become a professional singer?
Fri, 04/08/2011 - 3:10pm
#17
allowance...
are we beginning to sound like old farts at a bar talking about what we did and didn't do with our lives?
okay, perhaps i'm projecting my own onto others, as it has been done to me since i was a small boy. let me start by saying this is my version of this and i'm not trying to change your mind in your version of this. so let me then take a step back to the original inquiry. what would i do differently now, if i had the capacity to live for twice as long? my answer is... nothing. time is an illusion.
that's not to say i don't have regrets on things that i wish i would have done differently up to this point. but right now, with where i am in my life and the person that i strive to be, i don't think i'm missing out on anything that i don't already strive for. sure i would love to be able to give lots and lots of money to charities of the world but that never was, and isn't to be my destiny. my destiny is to carve out a life in art and music and to try and help others to do the same. if in my heart of hearts, i want to accomplish something, then i set forth the effort to do it. for me, time will not end that pursuit. i hope to have many more wonderful ideas of what i want to do, see, know and accomplish as i go along. Jeannie, you are an example of this in your life. going to college at 40 and getting a degree. awesome!
i do love the idea of seeing my family grow and for my niece and nephews to have their own nieces and nephews, kids and grandkids. that would be something that would change for me, not because of me and that is just wonderful! i LOVE those little buddies! but death happens at the end of our lives, whether it be at 67.2 or 134.4. death comes and makes whatever we are doing, were planning to do, always wanted to do, didn't get the chance to do, end. so what i am saying for me, is i'm going try to do all the things i want to do, rather than feeling like, if i only had more time.
Fri, 04/08/2011 - 5:27pm
#18
Boring...
(just kidding). That's nice. I don't feel like an old fart and I don't think you sound like one either. Sure time is an illusion. Of course if you're supposed to meet someone and they're 3 hours late that statement doesn't make it any less annoying.
I just feel like I could do a lot more of what I like to do with my life if I had more life to do it in. That's all. My only regret in life is that I have to die. (who said that?) It was supposed to be a fun mental exercise. I was curious to see what other people thought. The other x factor here is how we age physically and how that affects our decisions about life. I'm imagining everything just sort of stretched out like up until we're 40 or so would be kind of just like your 20's doubled. Yikes, could be dangerous.
But anway, we seem to have touched upon a larger themes about regret and time here.
Maybe this is a more interesting question.
If you knew you only had 1 week to live what would you do for that week?
Fri, 04/08/2011 - 6:53pm
#19
.
If you knew you only had 1 week to live what would you do for that week?
I can't think of anything that I would change.
Sat, 04/09/2011 - 12:22am
#20
You all need to quit spending
You all need to quit spending time on this thread as if you have twice as long to live.
Sat, 04/09/2011 - 2:09am
#21
You guys are party poopers.
This of course poses the question what is worse than wasting time? Answer: Wasting time writing about other people wasting time.
Sat, 04/09/2011 - 8:12am
#22
ouch
Good one Matt!
Sat, 04/09/2011 - 9:36am
#23
Thanks. But I know I have no
Thanks. But I know I have no chance with Bee K. He'll get me in the end (he always does).
Sat, 04/09/2011 - 10:47am
#24
Sorry Matt, I don't have the
Sorry Matt, I don't have the time.
Sat, 04/09/2011 - 10:53am
#25
D'ope!
D'ope!
Tue, 04/12/2011 - 8:25am
#26
The current estimated global
The current estimated global average lifespan of a human being is 67.2 years. What if it was twice that long? What would you do differently right now if you had the capacity to live for at least 134.4 year?
I've been thinking about the original question. It seems Ben is right, most folks have been posting what they would have done differently to this point of their lives, but that wasn't the question. The question implies that we would change what we're now doing since we'd have an additional approximately 50 yrs to live and that makes me wonder do we live our lives within a set time frame in mind and if so, why?
I'm sure you've all heard that famous line, "youth is wasted on the young" and I'm sure you've all seen my signature line here, "Its not that life's too short, its that we wait too long to live it.". Maybe we need to live our lives for 40 years or more before we realize what it is we really want to do with our lives, what's important to us, what we want to be. Maybe that's why when we make it to over 40 yrs of age our attitude about life changes somewhat and we get more of a "I don't give a shit" outlook on our lives with regard to what others think about us and what we're doing with our lives. We get a little freer. That's why we have octogenarians jumping out of planes and people fulfilling their bucket lists.
It raises the question in my mind that no matter if you only have 6 months to live or 50 years more, how come you're not doing what you want to be doing right now? Is it all excuses, ie. lack of funds, etc. or is it that you really don't want to be doing those things?
If you really want to be doing something, no matter what it is, I doubt anything is going to stop you from doing it. Not lack of funds, not people telling you you're crazy for wanting to do it, not lack of years to live, not anything.
So, if I was going to live to be 134 yrs old what would I be doing differently right now, not a damn thing. I'd continue to go on with my life, continuing to grow as a person, still discovering about the world & my place in it, still finding things that pique my interest, still taking path after path that make life more & more interesting with every twist and turn. I'd just continue to live my life.
Tue, 04/12/2011 - 1:33pm
#27
Thanks. That sounds good. I
Thanks. That sounds good. I did not realize that people would respond this way. I did not mean to make anyone uncomfortable. Of course the idea of having regret in our lives is terrifying. The truth is I have no idea for sure what I would do if I could live twice as long. But I thought it was a fun exorcise to allow your brain to go somewhere it might not typically want to go. Maybe I have A.D.D. or something but I find something different almost every day that wanna do that I would never have time to do if I lived for 500 years. And by the way I really do love what I do now. I love working with audio, I love playing in a band with my girlfriend, I love talking to people on the Forum and I especailly love it when other people connect and get inspired.
Tue, 04/12/2011 - 11:04am
#28
one week
if i had a week to live i would probably want to spend it with my family. i'd also want to actually release an album. i think i'd call it "rushed".
Tue, 04/12/2011 - 11:06am
#29
Highly
Highly recommended:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done
http://www.43folders.com/
Tue, 04/12/2011 - 1:13pm
#30
Good stuff.
Good stuff. Thanks.
Would I still end up infirm at some point? If I'm not going to be able to work for a lot of that time, I would start saving more money now. Cause there's no way social security is going to be able to support that many old people, and I'd hate to be a burden to my children.
http://www.doctorsquid.com