Conference quark::human_relations-v1

    I have a program at home that runs on my PC, and calculates your
    life expectancy, based on the answers to about 15 basic questions.
    The questions are things like:
    do you smoke?
    What is the longevity in your family?
    How stressful/dangerous is your job?
    How much do you exercise?
    etc...
    
    What's interesting is that the single question that seems to have
    the most impact on your life expectancy is the question:
    
    	What is your outlook on life?
    		a. Life is a bowl of cherries...I'm always happy
    		b. I'm usually happy
    		c. I have typical ups and downs
    		d. Life is the pits
    
    By varying my answers to this question, I can change my life
    expectancy by around 5 years, whereas the answers to most of the
    other questions (do you smoke? how much do you exercise? etc)
    usually make a difference of only about 1 year.
    
    So, the message is get happy.
    

Of course, it could be that successful ball players are those that 
exercise and play a lot, thus leading to a healthy cardio-vascular 
system, the number 2 killer of people who do not exercise and play 
a lot.

In other words, longevity may (and again, may not) be linked to 
success. Or ball playing.

As to the computer program mentioned in .1, have you heard about 
the guy who was told by his computer that he was **already** dead?

-- Ron

    
    	re .2-
    
    In the news report, the exercise factor was considered, and found
    to be the about same for each of the subjects in the study; i.e.
    they cleared that factor from influencing the correlation.
    
    	Joe Jas
    

>  re .0, Joe Jas
>  [studies] showed that the more successful ballplayers (Hitters; more
>  RBI's, Pitchers; more strike outs, etc) actually lived longer lives.
    
Interesting idea.  Makes me think of the occasions on which I've
played way over my head in tennis, ping pong, writing .... I
remember how I felt ... totally coordinated, harmonious,
whimsical, light hearted, with absolute concentration. All the
negatives were absent: no self-consciousness, no doubt ...
all together quite wonderful: a feeling of total physical
and emotion clarity. Especially a feeling of physical lightness.

The experience always crept up on me; I never realized I was
being "over my head" until the experience had been happening for
some 15 minutes or an hour. Have no idea what initiated it. 

Perhaps the successful people are not so much Happy as they are
not Unhappy.   (Hmmm ... anybody know about the life span of
Nobel prize winners?)                 
                                                Meigs

    I agree that people should try to have happy lives in the sense
    of viewing the proverbial glass as half full rather than half empty.
     People should try to find the good in things, make the best of
    things, find hobbies and interests that make them happy, etc.  But,
    I can't help but wonder if longevity isn't mostly coincidence. 
    I mean, are most people who die young, unhappy?  I doubt it.  Were
    most of the people who get cancer or die in plane crashes unhappy?
     If you think about it, it's almost like blaming them for it.  It's
    not a coincidence that they were killed, or got sick and died, it's
    because *they* didn't make an *effort* to be *happy* enough!  If
    they'd only have been more *happy* they might be alive today!
    
    (First, religion threatens us that if we aren't good we won't find
    eternal life!  Now, health fanatics threaten us that if we aren't
    happy enough we won't live long lives!  If it isn't one thing it's
    another.)
    
    Lorna