If you watch too many sports shows, as I do, you’ll eventually hear the following about the diminished skills of aging athletes, “Father Time is undefeated.” This is a modern, abridged version of a quote by Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor (1878-1932), “Each great athlete must some day bow to that perennial old champion, Father Time, even as I, for Time eventually wins.” And so it does.
Major Taylor was not boasting when he referred to himself as a great athlete. According to Wikipedia, ‘he was an American cyclist who won the world 1 mile (1.6 km) track cycling championship in 1899 after setting numerous world records and overcoming racial discrimination. Taylor was the first African-American athlete to achieve the level of world champion and only the second Black man to win a world championship in any sport.’
Taylor died at the age of 53, which was better than average considering his era and his race. A Black male born in the U.S. in 1900 had a life expectancy of only 32.5 years, a White male 46.6, while females of both races lived a year or two longer than their male counterparts.
All of us, not just great athletes, face an undefeated Father Time. The inevitability of our fate in this unequal contest is occasionally expressed in the ironic and only half-kidding expression – ‘No one gets out of this life alive.’
Although we often acknowledge fate philosophically, few people treat time for what it is – an ever-diminishing resource. It’s a countdown clock that stops erratically for each individual. The truth is that we are here and in our prime for only a short time, usually less than 100 years. Twenty of those are used in maturing and, if we are one of the lucky ones, ten are used winding down in old age. Dinosaurs ruled the earth for 135 million years; the human race has been around, in one form or another, for about 200,000. That total is less than one percent the span of the Dinosaur era.
Human life expectancy has risen dramatically in developed counties on a percentage basis. It was 69.0 years for Black males and 75.3 for White males by 2003 in the U.S.; females did even better, 80.1 considering all races. Applying my personal equation – 20 years to mature, 10 to wind down – the so-called prime of life now runs about 45 to 50 years. That’s a substantial improvement over 1900, but not very long, if you consider the big picture.
Those who plan to fulfill their heart’s desire after they retire should think about that. In the first place, there are no guarantees you’ll even be around long enough to retire, even if you do, you may be in no condition to live your dream when the time comes. Why not start earlier and live life while it’s worth living?
I’m not recommending that you chuck everything, buy the Porsche you still can’t afford, and leave the bills to your heirs, just ease into it. If you dream of traveling, take a vacation now while you can enjoy it. If your idea of heaven is turning your favorite hobby into a business or learning something new how about doing it in your spare time while you’re still young?
Give yourself the gift of good time – time well spent doing things that make you happy – because another proverb applies; time and tide wait for no one.
Marty Richman is a Hollister resident.
