While diet and lifestyle choices play a factor, research shows that it's genetics that determines how long we get to stick around. The genes in my family suggest that I'm here for a good long while -- which I'm not so sure would be my first choice.

In my experience, every single person who has mastered the great art of successful aging has had an inner grit. Not necessarily with any bravado or flourish, but with a steely determination to look loss straight in the face without blinking.

Researchers in Germany have decided that a 72-year-old human being today has the same probability of death as 30-year-old hunter-gatherers back in the cave man days.

The kind young woman asked my mom if she wanted to talk about dying. When my mother replied no, the young woman asked, "Doesn't it worry you when you think about dying?" My mother replied, "No, I just don't think about it."