Ageless attitude

As he hits 90, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens often still plays a game of tennis before a day on the bench. And only now is the respected jurist planning to leave the court.

It is a measure of society's changing ideas of "old age" that Justice Stevens's advanced years and his vibrant mental capabilities have drawn little media attention. Indeed, life span may be as much a matter of attitude as anything else. Who can say when it's time to "retire"? When Bismarck picked 65 as the retirement age for Germany's 1889 pension programme, there was little regard for progress in human thinking about ageing.

Today's researchers are scrambling to explain the rapid rise in Americans who are 100 or older. The numbers of centenarians has increased 35 per cent from 1990 to 2000 and may have risen 50 per cent in the past decade. This century, the growth rate may be 60 per cent per decade. One study predicts that half of all children born since 2000 could live to 104.

While research on ageing often focuses on physical lifestyle, family background and medical care, more attention is being paid to how people mentally work at battling notions of decline. How well do they negotiate life's troubles? What role does humour play? How outgoing are they? (One way to know seniors want to keep alert: They balance their own chequebooks.)

In general, those who reject retirement and a later life of leisure in favour of work have a leg up in adding bonus years. Giving to others and to future generations is also a gift of life to one's self.

The rising number of centenarians should be a signal to "young 'uns" in their seventies and eighties that they have energy to spare — and stereotypes about health to break.