I am sure there are many
reasons but I would like to consider just a few. Take air conditioning for
example. The ability to escape the oppressive heat of summer and the stress of
that heat, especially at night, makes one’s life much easier. When I was a kid,
if you wanted air conditioning, you had to go to the movie theater. That wasn’t
all bad because many times they were showing Tarzan or the Lone Ranger.
Not to be outdone as an
extender of human life, consider heating. I set the thermostat to a comfortable
temperature and magically my heater goes on or off to achieve that temperature
with no effort on my part. Even more magically, my air conditioner and heater
are on the same thermostat. I don’t have to chop wood or stoke a fire. I don’t
have to breathe in smoke and ash to stay warm. I just push a button.
Not that long ago, if
you wanted to go somewhere, you either saddled up a horse or hitched up a
wagon. Do you have any idea how many people left this earth prematurely because
of rearing horses or runaway buggies? A ten-mile trip to the grocery store was
an all day event. Today I can get in my car, get out on a paved highway, turn
on my air conditioner, set my cruise control, turn on stereo music, relax in my
power adjusted seat, and travel well over a mile every minute. If it rains, I
turn on the windshield wipers. If it gets dark, I turn on the headlights. If I
want, I can even talk on the phone with anybody in the world while I am
traveling through space from my car. Imagine what people from a hundred years
ago would think of that.
Next on my list is food.
Food poisoning killed many, many people in times past. Botulism and rancid meat
were not uncommon. We have today the safest food in our history. With pressure
canning, freezing, and in some cases chemical preservatives, we can keep food
healthy and tasty for much longer than in the past. Who knows how many lives
are saved or extended by that simple fact?
Finally, I want to
consider modern medicine. I have a shoulder replacement, a knee replacement,
hearing aids, some store-bought teeth, I sleep with a CPAP machine because of
sleep apnea, and eyeglasses. I take medicine to control my cholesterol, blood
pressure, prostate, and blood sugar. If I get a headache, I can take an
aspirin. In simple words, my condition is almost exclusively the result of
modern medicine. And for a certainty, I am grateful for it.
So, yes. My 79th
birthday will be a milestone. I will spend some of that day remembering so many
of my friends and family who did not get there. I will rejoice in the knowledge
that I knew them. But, I will go about my day looking forward to the next
several milestones. In fact, I plan to die in my sleep some twenty or thirty
years down the road. That will be yet another milestone.
Ron Scarbro
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