Oct. 10, 2001 - 19:23 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Not Both

It was one of those days of joint effort ending with a good meal and general talk. It tended toward the progress of medical science. One of the guys said, "I'll bet that in a few years they will come out with a pill that will let us live five hundred years." Being tired and gently relaxing into the conversation it soon became desultory and passed on to base ball of foot ball or something.

The five hundred year pill caromed around in my sponge called a brain, laid there for awhile just simmering -- lol. I began to see just how complicated that would make things for everybody. Would everybody in the world have to take one ? Would there be a choice ? Or would it be that the richest most influential people would have dibs on the goodies ?

If the pills were available to the public Joe, how soon would the earth be people standing elbow rubbing elbow, and chest rubbing back ? Governmental birth control ? Would we eat the last leaf of lettuce and hamburger ?

Then there would be a matter of health, orthopedic durability of bones and joints and the useful life of things like eyes. Would the dreamed of pill ensure that the person taking the pill was living in a five hundred year body ? Would the healing rate be accelerated ?

In civil matters would society be able to build enough prisons to hold convicts for four hundred seventy five years ? Or would a criminal be put down like an old dog ?

How long would a person have to work to be entitled to retirement ?

I can't imagine how miserable it would be to live several hundred years as a paraplegic, or as a paranoid schizophrenic or ailing with something that never gets better just gets worse as time goes by. Could civilization rearrange itself to accomodate such a thing ? Or would it crash and burn sooner than it seems to be doing now ?

And to me the crux of the matter centers around, is it possible to live that long doing the same things over and over again day after day. How many world cruises could one take before being bored to tears ? How many children could a person parent ? I would think that in five hundred years all the good books would be read and some of the bad ones too. I would also think that a person would get tired working crossword puzzles, or playing cards for several hundred years, even longwinded chess games would pall I think. Could any person love music enough to play a piano, violin or woodwind for fourhundred plus years ?

Why not ? Or just simply why ? On either score. If I would be offered the pill today what would be my choice ? If it was to be either, or, but Not Both . . . . . .

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