If someone could tell you how long you had to live, would you want to know?
I wouldn't. I figure if that knowledge would lead to significant changes in the way I'm leading my life, I should go to work making those changes anyway. It's no secret we're all going to die some day, so if anyone is waiting to figure out their expiration date, stop waiting.
If Prince couldn't do it, what makes you believe you can?
Death became the hot topic last week after authorities found the legendary musician, songwriter and singer collapsed inside an elevator at his Minnesota home and recording studio. But it had also was the subject of a new report on the life expectancy of Americans from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
The big take-away from federal researchers: The life expectancy for white Americans is on the decline after decades of rising.
In contrast, life expectancy for black Americans rose slightly, but the rise contributed to more than a year of life expectancy that population has gained since 2008. Life expectancy also rose for Hispanics.
Researchers, of course, want to know what's behind such changes.
Elizabeth Arias, author of the CDC report, said the decline for whites was largely caused by so-called unintentional injuries, suicide and chronic liver diseases. The information behind the data, beyond suicides, is the other two categories are driven by drug overdoses and alcoholism. I later heard a report on NPR featuring Anne Case, an economist and lead author of a recent Princeton study on life expectancy, referred in NPR's coverage to the fatalities as "deaths of despair."
"Well, it looks like people are killing themselves either quickly or slowly. Quickly is either suicide, drug overdose, or slowly is with alcohol-related diseases," Case said.
Case said the deaths are concentrated among white people with less education, such as high school dropouts and people who never went to college. She told NPR she suspects the reasons are tied to their diminished economic prospects.
I found her further explanation intriguing, as she theorized working-class whites have "lost the narrative of their lives."
Lost the narrative? I'm used to hearing that phrase in a political context as a candidate or party loses its ability to shape the way their messages are delivered or interpreted. But Americans dying because of losing the narrative?
It's a fascinating notion. Blacks still lag far behind whites in life expectancy. Economically, they face a steeper climb, yet they're gaining longer lives. So what about their narrative?
What the researchers are suggesting is that people don't respond well to a loss of hope. White Americans have been in Red Barber's "catbird seat" since the very founding of this country and each passing generation has generally done better than the one before it. At least among middle-class whites, some are accepting the idea such expectations, such American dreams, aren't realistic anymore.
So why would minorities' life expectancy be improving? Don't they face the same kinds of challenges in life, even more so for many?
Even though whites statistically have it better than their minority counterparts, the researchers are suggesting it doesn't matter what one's objective standing is. What matters is one's standing relative to expectations and whether the prospects for improvement tomorrow are greater than they are today. What matters is whether one's expectations are being met. When one concludes there is little to no chance their life will play out as they want, that's where despair can slither in.
"Despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt," J.R.R. Tolkien wrote. None of us know beyond all doubt how today's circumstances will turn out tomorrow.
The life expectancy research suggests, ironically, that it's easier for those who have always faced challenges to find hope in their circumstances than it is for those who have largely had good fortune but face new difficulties.
Somewhere in the midst of all this, I suspect, is evidence that contentment is the great inoculator against the diseases of disappointment and despair.
A man named Paul offered this to friends concerned about him: "Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need."
It is a secret we would all do well to seek.
Commentary on 04/25/2016