I Wish I was a Tortoise…

June 28th, 2006

I have always wanted to live to a ripe old age. Right from the time I was a kid, I’d tell people, ‘I am going to live to be 100 years old.’ Well, seeing the world as it is today, I have come down on the original number of 100 a bit (80 should suffice). However, the desire to live a long life is still there. And over the past few months I have added another parameter to ‘long life’ – healthy. I don’t definitely want to drag myself over the last few years; I guess that wouldn’t be worth too much.

Recently I read about Harriet’s life. Actually, I first read about her death, and then caught up with her life. For someone like me aspiring towards a long life, Harriet was an instant celebrity. For those who don’t know, Harriet is a Galapagos tortoise that passed away last week at the ripe old age of 175 (that reads more like a batsman’s score in a cricket match than someone’s age!). She was an institution, and some of the landmarks she witnessed make awesome reading – she was 35 when Lincoln was assassinated, 82 when the Titanic sank, and a 111 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor!

And all without too much exercise or hard work! Just imagine, you loll by the pool (in Harriet’s case, pond) all day long, eat at your leisure, walk maybe a few steps, grow fat and big, and yet live to be 175! Why? Because that, god bless you, is your actual life span!

We on the other hand, are different. We have invented and discovered a thousand different ways to run ourselves close to the edge, and another thousand ways to get back from the brink and into the pattern of a healthy life. We work too hard, we are scared of sickness. We work too less; we are still scared of sickness. We have money, comfort, luxuries, technology, but to what end? We spend all our time rung behind things, and then sweat the nights away thinking of the next imminent visit to the doctor and what it might show up…

There are times like these when I wish I was just a damn tortoise – not too significantly noticeable to have the rest of the food chain above me behind my back, and yet able to live a contented, worry-free life, and long life!

Entry Filed under: Healthy Lifestyles