Live like there’s no tomorrow

A local insurance agent I knew dropped dead of a heart attack several months ago. Had a massive coronary in the morning shower and never recovered. Only in his late 50s.

Did he have any warning signs and chose to ignore them?

Or did a piece of plaque break away from the wall of an artery and cause his death without warning? Literally, here one minute, gone the next.

In fact, in America, heart attacks occur approximately every 35 seconds, and most occur in the morning when the blood platelets are especially “sticky” and prone to form clots.

Men who exercise, though, can add 2.5 years to their lives. Considering that today’s 55-year-old American male is expected to live approximately another 20 years, per CDC, 2.5 years adds almost another 10 percent if you’ll get up off that couch and hit the treadmill.

On top of that, dump your wife and marry someone 20 years younger, and that’ll add another three years to your life.

Just kidding. I made that up, and actually, I think the opposite is true.

The guys who can’t accept the fact that they’re getting older and try to ward off the aging process by doing things like divorcing their long-time wife so they can marry a woman young enough to be their daughter, granddaughter, I think end up dying younger than the guy who lives his life with better balance.

Understanding that true happiness comes from within, not from material, external things, including a sweet, cute 21-year-old named Barbiekins, is key.

Sure, Coach Bill Belichick, 73, looks happy with his 24-year-old girlfriend, but when he’s 85, and she is 36, how’s that going to work?

Living for Today

Anyway, point is, with a heart attack or stroke always hanging over our heads, not to mention death by accident, the only way to live that makes sense is to live for today, like every day is our last.

Treat family and friends the same way. Remember how much we value them, always, and that life is impermanent, so enjoy them today, while we can, and never take them for granted.

I was reading about the Stoic philosophy the other day, and how the Stoics from ancient Greece and Rome used negative visualization to help increase their enjoyment of life. They’d visualize a life without the things they already had – a healthy and loving family, a roof over their head, food on the table. The simple things of life, as it were. And then they’d imagine losing those things and how life would be without them.

Do that, the Stoics learned, and you’re much less likely to take your current possessions for granted, and you’re much less likely to waste your time wishing for things you don’t have, instead of being happy for the things you do have.

Don’t want to preach, because what do I know? But the older I get, the more I realize that the things that really matter are the ones we most take for granted. How’s that for irony?

Trick now is, as we grow older, to find ways to make sure we can live at least another 30 + years in good health (for someone in their 50s). To do that, we can’t keep living like we did when we were younger, losing our temper over stupid things (politics on TV, traffic), being impatient all the time, getting upset over stuff we can’t control, feeling anxious all the time, eating the wrong foods, and not eating right.

All those things represent is a fast-track ticket to heart-attack city. Or a stroke.

Adopting a whole new way of life, changing our habits for the better as we age, becoming more accepting that life has no guarantees, and it sure isn’t fair a lot of the time, but deal with it we must, accepting the bad with the good with equanimity (evenness of mind under stress).

That, I think, is the ticket to a long and happy life.

Dead at 59, though. Too young, and a tragedy for the family of the insurance agent.