What do you c onsider old age?

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It's probably time we started to re-think what old age is. I believe the past norm of retiring at 55 or 60 or 65 and slowing our lives to a crawl until we die is becoming a thing of the past. Often I hear of people who work hard all their lives, retire, and within a few years their health starts going downhill. It seems unfair that this happens just when they leave behind the mental and physical alertness necessary to survive during their working years. However, what if its the slowdown that is actually the cause of the onset of poor health and lethargy. I think of it as the hunter-gatherer syndrome. When Grog the caveman headed out every morning to kill something for food or search the countryside for roots and berries, he was at his prime. He was in great shape from all that walking, running, fighting and climbing. He demanded physical and mental fitness from his body to keep up with his way of life. When the day came that he reached the ripe old age of 20 something, he most likely retired and left the food hunting to Norf, the younger 16 year old caveman. As for himself, he sat around the fire, ate the mastadon that Norf dragged home and did little else. His body responded. He grew fat, content and lazy. One day when he wandered too far from camp, a dinosaur much like the ones he used to kill for food, killed him, because he was too slow and out of shape to get away or fight it off. The moral of my little story is.....just because we reach some magical, preset age, is it in our best interests to shut everything down? To lose our physical and mental sharpness? I think not. Our bodies will gladly oblige. If we demand little of it, than thats exactly what we'll get. Little. It will begin to shut down because it senses that the needs of the hunter-gatherer are no longer necessary. .......................................... How about Al Gordon? In 1931 he took over an underwriting company called Kidder, Peabody and Co. He went on to spend 8 decades as an investor and executive. Oh, and also...HE WAS A MARATHONER INTO HIS 80's. I should also mention that he still buys stocks. He buys long term. By the way....HE'S 105 YEARS OLD! .......................................... Then there's Waldo down there in Quinter, Kansas. Waldo BEGAN long distance running at the age of 65. At age 75 he decided to start running competitively. At age 80, he set a Kansas state record for the ten-mile run for his age group. He went on to set records in running, long jump, discus and shot-put into his 90's and 100's at the Senior Olympics. Oh, and that's no all.... Waldo still works and was just named Americas oldest worker. He's a beekeeper. He's 104 years old. WOW! I wonder what would have happened if he had retired at 65 and did nothing? Hmmmm.