If I Live To Be 100

With time seeming to speed up, it is a welcome break to read a few stories about folks who know a thing or two about time. The above book by Neenah Ellis, If I Live To Be 100, has been a best seller at Watson Kennedy season after season. Some of you might be familiar with Ellis, as she was involved in the radio series called “One Hundred Years of Stories” which aired on NPR in 2000. This book is slightly different, as it is not so much a look back on a life–she wanted to know about the lives of the centenarians in the present tense. “The centenarians are as mysterious as infants in their way, so full of promise and surprises.” Of her many interviews that turned into chapters, she writes, “There is a glow, a magnetism, a vibe I feel when I’m around them. It causes me to feel a deep connection and I learned a scientific explanation for it. Some call it “limbic resonance,” the innate ability of mammals to feel one another’s emotional state. It’s a primal source of human happiness. Learning about it helped me to slow down and be comfortable with silence, to welcome it. This is my story about learning to listen.” This is a really great book. To give, to keep, to do both.