Longevity

When you live longer than you expect, birthdays are different. They contain a sort of enduring shock and surprise.  For the members of my family who face a genetic illness that has killed my ancestral relatives at 39 and 46, to live into our sixties carries a force of pride and guilt.  Why us?  Why did we survive when others who suffered long and horribly, could not.  Science and medical knowledge allowed us to and our tenacity with the therapies also, but the shock remains.  Every year we celebrate two aspects of our lives, our organ donors who made our longevity possible and that his children, and my children – all of them - have escaped this disease and will not carry the shadow of death within their bodies.

Today is my brother’s birthday and he is amazed to be 65.  A number neither of us planned to achieve.  What to do with longevity is a constant question.  It becomes coupled with “Of what will I die?”  “Great Expectations” indeed!  When one grows up with death looming about, one walks with these questions all through life. The animal in us fears the answer, the human ponders it and tries to plan.

Part of planning is trying to determine what makes a longer life, or any part of life worth living.  Personally, I stumbled in my college years seeking a major which made sense.  I started in the sciences, a familiar and comfortable territory.  The beauty of the sciences filled me with wonder, but in the end the tedium of measurement and repetition pushed me away and into the place I should have been all along: art.

Art improves the quality of life; it makes longevity worthwhile.  For me as an artist it makes it conceivable, as I feel an urgent need to create, with images and with words.  Art makes my life one of giving to others, its communicative virtues give order and logic to my life.

I wish my brother a happy birthday today as he extends his life further. His devotion to helping people with his medical expertise, his singing, ship modelling, composing and compassion, surely make the  world better for his longevity.

Comments

kmd said…
Beautifully said! I'm so glad to see and read your writing again <3
June 21, 2022 at 3:05 PM

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