The 100-Year Challenge

As I approached my 80th birthday (March 15, 2019), my dear friend Kim Campbell said I would live to one hundred.

Maybe ninety, I thought. And then, this morning, on Christiane Amanpour’s PBS show, two writers, Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott, talked about their new book, The 100-Year Life.

They spoke about the growing number of people who are living to one hundred. What to do with all those extra years? Of course, remain active physically and mentally.

I asked myself, What do I have to do to live to one hundred? First, for me, is to live a life of love and let go of anger. People aggress against me. I think and plot how to retaliate – which equals negative energy. So, from today, I want to smile and say hello. I want to plot how to be happy in response. I heard an interview the other day with a man who works for the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. His job is to spot people who he thinks may jump – and talk to them. He said, one of the few people to ever survive the jump, spoke to him in the hospital. The jumper said, if someone, anyone, had smiled or said hello to him on his twenty minute journey from his home to the bridge, he would not have jumped.

What is the lesson? Smile? I’ve read that a simple smile can change our mood. OWN YOUR ATTITUDE. Positive attitude hopefully gets a positive response. If not, if the person you’re saying good morning to is in the midst of an emotional crisis, don’t take it on. Let it go. Smile to yourself. I smile to myself all the time. After all, I’m taking on Kim’s challenge; happy will get me to one hundred. Not anger.