Living to 100 and beyond

I just finished reading If I Live to Be 100, the 2002 book by Neenah Ellis, based on her public radio series. She recounts numerous interviews of Americans from across the country who lived to be 100 years old or older.

In addition to meeting a fascinating variety of people, Ellis reflects on and reveals her own personal thoughts on aging, relationships, and self-identity. Here's a short sample from the introduction:

As I was listening to their life stories, I realized that I was being given the chance to choose my own future . . . . By lining my life up alongside theirs, I got a better idea of where I might be headed. I'd always had a sense of my life as a leaf floating down a river, on a course that seemed unalterable, but suddenly, in my mid-forties, I felt the need to make more choices: I could decide what sort of old person I wanted to be.

In a similar vein, check out the Dallas News piece on 30 ways to live to be 100. All of the suggestions are great, but my favorites are "dance, sing" and "find passion for the little things in life."