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Or did she just have great genetics and live a very healthy life style? And you see some centenarians attributing their unusual age to drinking a pinch of hooch a day.
I have caught myself making highly selective generalizations about myself that are absurd simplifications of complex influences and conditions.
Of course. One example proves nothing, and that's a disclaimer I should have added to my post which you quoted. My point was that the elderly woman's own reason for her longevity (lots of work) could just as easily be interpreted as lots of social contact in the course of the work to fit into the theme of this thread.
There's a "money can't buy you happiness" crowd that I think misses a key point - there is some minimum amount of money for each person, which obviously varies as folks have different tastes and wants, to provide a necessary level of comfort. Some people are fine in a small apartment/condo/trailer, eating Beanie-Weenees and drinking Natural Light all day on the porch. Others aren't satisfied unless they have the finest of everything while jetsetting around the world.
No one is going to have much fun if they have to choose if the lights or the water gets cut off, or if they can only afford to eat one small meal a day instead of a regular amount of food. Relationships aren't going to work well if you're constantly bumming rides or couchsurfing.
Once a person attains enough income to satisfy their basic needs and desires, then I think relationships become more important.
There's no secret to happiness. There's no secret to weight loss. There's no secret to a long life. Just enjoy and go with the flow. When I think of the days and calories I've wasted researching 'secrets' and 'miracles' on line it makes me crazy.
I am not sure how often < 40yo's come into this forum, but what made me happy at 20 is different than what makes me happy now and it may very well change again at 65. Right now, all I can think of to make me even happier than I am is a nice fast $100k car. I hope to god I still have this affection for nice cars at 60. People say money doesn't make you happy (yet you need it and save for it throughout your working lives). Money - more specifically, getting to spend it, certainly won't make me sad. Retirees have said they wish they spent less on "stuff" - that they have accumulated too much they deem wasteful now. Appears to me they forget how much joy it gave them when they bought it.
You know what's funny? We say the same thing about our kids' toys now. So wasteful... same idea in my opinion.
As for the original question posed - I don't think it's much fun to live life without sharing it with someone - that, I'm sure, will not change for me when I'm 65.
One can scarcely fail to note that all of her many jobs were pretty social in nature. She was interacting with other people. So, was it the "work" per se which contributed to her longevity, or the social interactions which her work provided?
It's hard to be content when you are living in poverty, and hard to be social when you are living paycheck to paycheck. Money is not overrated. It's essential for healthy living.
I do agree that having a strong social system or a loving family is very important. Not everyone has this, though.
I think a strong support system combined with a healthy income is the best recipe.
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