Do more years mean better years?

When I was a child at Campbell Hall Episcopal School in the San

Fernando Valley, many prayers in our (1928) Book of Common Prayer

concluded, “ ... world without end. Amen.”

“World without end” did not seem to me to be a good or happy idea

then; now I realize that this body-bound life inevitably ends for us

all. Wisdom of our heritage, such as the wonderful “For everything

there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven,”

(Ecclesiastes 3:1-8) reminds us that there is certainly “a time to

die.” As I did even in my youth, I look forward to discovering what

is next, what more eternal adventures God has waiting for us. For

myself, and I trust for other people with religious faith, concern is

less for increasing the life span than it is for maximizing quality

of life here and now.

For medical scientists, I suspect a concern is whether to

prioritize extending length of body-bound lives or increasing

wellness of human bodies during whatever one’s life span may be.

Christians have clearly accepted Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s challenge

in his “Ethics,” written between 1940 and 1943 in Berlin: “Is the

Church charged with a mission toward the given worldly orders

themselves, a mission of correction, improvement, etc., a mission to

work toward a new worldly order?” Anticipating amazing technological

advances, ethicists are hard at work developing criteria as to how we

might know which discoveries come via God’s grace and which evoke old

principles like, “just because we can do something doesn’t mean we

should do it.”

At 58, I am young enough that I look forward to many active years

with good health, and I am old enough to have contemporary friends

who have moved along to that “heavenly banquet” of which our current

(1979) Book of Common Prayer speaks. As a parish priest, I have

encountered too many souls with bodies no longer able to provide the

meaning families and friends crave for their beloved. I pray that

medical science will do whatever possible to provide wellness for

bodies so that persons can live purposeful lives.

THE VERY REV’D CANON

PETER D. HAYNES

Saint Michael & All Angels

Episcopal Parish Church

Corona del Mar

Will we reach a time when nothing is certain but taxes? Is death a

disease to be conquered? If life is good, is more of it better? Is

every death premature?

The human lifespan is considered at the very outset of the Torah.

The Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden bears fruit that increases

longevity or perhaps even offers immortality. The traditional Jewish

blessing for health is “May you live to be 120,” the age of Moses

upon his death. The Jewish toast is “L’Chaim,” or “To Life!” Numerous

Biblical figures are said to have reached extreme ages. The Biblical

viewpoint is that longevity does not happen without good reason, but

should be considered a Divine reward for a life of virtue.

Nature is our home, but also our challenge. The entire enterprise

of medicine harnesses human ingenuity and all available resources to

overcome the natural processes of nature and extend lives that would

otherwise be ended. God has granted us the intelligence and will to

improve man’s lot on earth. He has endowed us with the capacity to

take the products of the laboratory and stamp them with a moral

vision. We must be certain that our ethical development keeps pace

with our technical progress.

If people of today can expect to live twice as long as those of a

century ago, why shouldn’t the lives of our grandchildren be double

the length of ours? As long as the process does not violate the

sacredness of life and the dignity of man, it does not appear that

God is concerned with how many years we live, but with how we live

during our years.

A traveler arrived at a town and was offered a tour by a resident.

One of the sites visited was the town cemetery, which featured a

shocking image: from a reading of the tombstones, the visitor noticed

that no one in the town lived past the age of 20. The townsman saw

the visitor’s expression of amazement and said, “We have an ordinance

here that we inscribe on the tombstones, not the quantity of years

from birth to death, but the number of years the person actually

lived. Here is a man who existed until he was 80, but he only truly

lived for 15 of those years. Here is a woman who reached advanced

age, but in only a few of her years did she actually embrace life.”

Whether “the days of our years are three-score and ten” or whether

we live for two centuries, let us heed the words of the Psalmist,

“Teach us to number our days that we may acquire a heart of wisdom.”

RABBI MARK MILLER

Temple Bat Yam

Newport Beach

Many people are optimistic about the possibility of a longer life

due to recent scientific breakthroughs, including those in the areas

of genetic manipulation and nanotechnology. Although it’s important

to discuss the ethical concerns of these new directions, the more

relevant question from a Zen perspective is: how am I appreciating my

life right now? More years is not the answer, unless we are also

asking, “More years to do what? Without having truly tasted our first

drink, we are already ordering our second.

We are accustomed to believing more is better -- more years, more

choices, more freedoms, more things. We are also accustomed to

relying on science and medicine to better our lives in countless

ways. This drive for more and better has taken a terrible toll on our

personal health, as well as the health of our global society and

planet.

Another important consideration is, who will benefit from these

new medical technologies? Today, there are millions living in the

United States, in one of the richest nations on earth, who aren’t

even able to afford basic health care. There are also millions more

in the poorest nations who are dying from lack of clean water and

food, let alone the lack of medical care of any kind. How do these

facts situate our concern with personal longevity? In addition, is it

really sensible to place too much stock in these sorts of

technological advances when we still haven’t addressed either the

future sustainability of our planet or the ravages of war?

Of course, we are intrigued by the very real possibility of living

longer. But this can also draw us away from the immediate challenge

of the present -- how can I appreciate my life more fully today, in

health and cooperation, realizing my place as a part of the global

family and even larger universe?

REV. CAROL AGUILAR

Zen Center of

Orange County

Costa Mesa