"and if you didn't end up in prison or the insane asylum, you probably did alright."... Ending up with Alzheimer is also not very nice, or if the own body itself is suddenly the prison. An accident can happen, where the spinal cord can be cut in the neck area, or the person can get a disease, and then the person cannot speak and cannot use the arms and legs anymore (the person will suffocate in the final stage). As long as You can speak and walk alone, it doesn't matter, if You cannot see and hear very well anymore some day...
"Life does not get easier, it only gets harder as we all age."... You are right. In younger years there will be somebody, who can hold You, but if You are older, suddenly this person is not here anymore. The own health becomes worse, if we become older, and we will lose other people, who were able to help us, because they had enough money and enough place in their apartments and because they were willing to help us. Suddenly these other people are dead or in a nursing home with only 1 room. Also my mother cannot help us anymore, if we would experience a second water damage or a fire...
I myself escaped from the death before my second birthday, but I was never physically fit. In the sport lessons I often got no more air after physical exertion and then I had to stop. In the primary school with "Montessori Pedagogy" the director and the teachers accepted that, but the director in the high school didn't that (the high school itself was the hell on earth for me). With 20 I wasn't healthy enough, nobody accepted me, but I was more healthy than today. In Berlin-Neukölln this is not such a problem for me like in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, where more intolerant people with prejudices are living (my parents experienced that, too, when they became older and they got their diseases). I don't know, what will happen 10-20 years later, of course...
Do I want to become 80? Only, if I can be sure, that I will not get Parkinson or Alzheimer. But if I would be 60 some day and if I would have further plans and then suddenly die, it also wouldn't be very good for me. 47 is already a very critical age, because it seems, that so many people suddenly have to die between 45 and 60, mostly because of a heart attack...
I didn't post these 2 links yet, but these topics are also very important:
What will happen to the profiles and uploads after the death?
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?t=370066
life is fragile
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?t=362380
The other topics are not so far away from this topic, especially in the second thread...