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Food for Thought

Forward to Methusaleh

Tim Madigan hopes to not die before he gets old.

“The goddess Dawn married a mortal named Tithonus, whom Zeus made immortal for her sake; but she forgot to ask that he might always stay young. Tithonus grew older and older, greyer and greyer, uglier and uglier, smaller and smaller, until he ended up as a grasshopper.”
Robert Graves, Greek Gods and Heroes

Thanks to more effective medical procedures and an increasing knowledge of our genetic structures, human life expectancy has dramatically increased. Compared to the beginning of the Twentieth Century, when to reach the age of 60 was an achievement, the number of people today who were born over a century ago is astonishing.

But for Tithonus, long life in and of itself was no blessing.

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