We received some good news earlier this month when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that life expectancy in the United States reached a record high of 79 years in 2024 – up from 78.4 in 2023.

A 0.6-year increase may seem small—but it equals seven months, 219 days, or over 5,000 hours. That’s a lot of time. You can do more than you might think with it. Francis Scott Key wrote the Star-Spangled Banner overnight, Sylvester Stallone wrote “Rocky” in three days – and it took George Frideric Handel just 24 days to compose the “Messiah.”

79 years is more than two years longer than the average life expectancy in 2006, and six more than in 1976. We’re hearing a lot recently about America’s Semiquincentennial, or its 250th birthday coming up on Independence Day. Back on July 4, 1776, the average colonist could expect to make it just 35 years.

When Charles Dickens wrote “Great Expectations” back in 1860, neither the orphan, Pip, nor his love interest, Estella, or any of the characters for that matter, were focused on getting more years out of life. Instead, Pip was expecting a fortune and hoping to capture Estella’s affection. The rest of the characters in the story were counting on any number of things, but old age wasn’t one of them.  To put it simply they were rightly focused on putting more life in their years than adding years to their life.

What’s considered “old age” is a subjective characterization, of course. But it’s a rather modern development that most of us expect to live at least eight decades. But while we want to grow old, none of us want to get old. In fact, battling it has become such an obsession for some that they’ll spend great sums of money and time to try and stave off evidence of the passing years. In 2026, Americans will shell out more than $22 billion on anti-aging products.

Then there are the more than 200 people who have had their heads and bodies cryopreserved at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation facility in Scottsdale, Arizona. They’re expecting someone to come up with a cure for what killed them, thus eventually extending their life. Yet most scientists say the only thing they’re extending by being frozen in death are their burden of expenses. The body of Baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams is among those stored in a tank of liquid nitrogen.

“To each his (or her) own” as the saying goes, but rather than focusing on life expectancy in terms of years, I wonder if we’d be all better off concentrating on refining and reimagining how we might expect to live, however long we’re given or gifted.

Since receiving a diagnosis of a rare blood cancer last year, I have shifted my perspective from years of life to moments of life. Thirty more years on this earth is abstract; thirty more summers, thirty more Christmases, or thirty more birthdays are tangible and precious. Each event stands on its own, magnified by the knowledge that life is fragile and fleeting.

Taking life for granted is a common mistake for most of us, a bad habit that can be too loose to feel until its chains are too heavy to bear or break. But there’s nothing quite as humbling as an incurable (although treatable) disease to remind you that life is fragile and fleeting.

It’s an old saying that life is wasted on the young, but that mistake isn’t only reserved for youth. Our city is filled with seasoned citizens who have a lot to give. They have answers – but we need to challenge them, ask them questions, and listen to what they have to say.

In the Dickens’ classic, you’ll remember Pip expected wealth and the woman of his dreams, and as a result, lived recklessly and entitled. He expected money would solve all his problems and eventually discovered that it’s humility and honesty that lead to the good life.

Likewise, much misery in our own lives is based on false expectations – that more money will buy more happiness, that old age is a given, and that perfection this side of eternity is attainable.

“I have been bent and broken, but—I hope—into a better shape,” reflected Pip. If we live with humility, we might expect the same transformation in ourselves—focusing less on years added and more on life more fully lived.

Paul J. Batura is a local writer and founder of the 4:8 Media Network. He can be reached via email Paul@PaulBatura.com or on X @PaulBatura.