I’m 80 And In Good Health. People Always Ask How I Do It. Here’s My Answer.

Things change when you turn 80. Health is involved, but not in the way we usually think of age and medical stuff. Instead, there is the moment – that magical instance when people you met three minutes ago think they now have a license to raise the most intimate questions.

“So tell me,” they ask, “how do you account for such good health at your age?”

This question includes various assumptions. It implies that I want to talk about health, that I wish to talk about my health, that I do not have a terminal condition that will result in a sudden collapse, and that I know something about health – maybe a special inside secret I might reveal to a stranger. 

These assumptions are tragically wrong, and here is what I want them t...