SOCIETY TALK: To live or not to live to a hundred

To be a hundred years old… just imagine that. I think most of us have never thought of it. The idea seems far-fetched, yet every so often, someone comes around and surprises us.

Sir David Attenborough is a world-renowned environmentalist and broadcaster whose love for the living world has inspired many generations. As of this month, the noted historian turned a hundred years old!

To be a hundred is to have lived through wars, revolutions, eras… to watch the world changing right before your eyes. Most of what he saw, we read through history books. Most of his accomplishments, our children will read in books. And still, he soldiers on.

While I am impartial on most of his work, I can't help but marvel at the idea of living that long. The big question is: How many of us want to live that long? Those of us who believe in religion understand that we do not pick and choose how long we live. We entrust our lives in God's hands. But if you did have the option to choose, how long would you choose to live for?

I think for most of us the question would not be phrased as how long we would wish to live but how we would live through these ages. In an old 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper, Sir David's response to what he was most fearful of was “becoming helpless and gaga”. Cooper followed up with the question “are you afraid of death?” To which he responded, “No. Not the process. I'd just like it to be a quick process.”

As someone who has been surrounded by the sick and dying within the immediate family, I find myself pondering the idea of growing old. Seeing my great-grandmother living to the celebrated age of 102 and turning blind from age, seeing my grandfather live through multiple strokes and my own father through ailments that later took his life; I know I don't want to live that long.

The idea of life to me is simply living. Living is to breathe, see, walk, eat, talk, enjoy, love, laugh. And I believe that for as long as one does that, they are living. However, if one is alive but bound to the bed, are they really living? Should we celebrate them for ‘living’ to that old age?

Just like Sir David and I'm sure many people in the world, the idea of living long but being a burden to your loved ones hurts more than the idea of dying. We want to leave wealth, legacies and good memories when we depart from the physical world.

Most of us want to leave behind our successors in a far better position than we were born with. We don't want to leave them with suffocating hospital debts and sad memories of our broken bodies.

I believe this is the reason most of us would choose not to live too long if we were given the option. No one wants to be a burden to others. More importantly, most of us do not wish to see our own selves becoming shrivelled figures of our former selves.

For his 100th celebration at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Sir David waddled on his own two feet from the car to the theatre, where he enjoyed being celebrated by his peers and mentees. A clear sign that even at a hundred, Sir David is still living.