What will my day be like tomorrow? I don’t even know what today will be like, so I can’t plan for another day. As they say: “One day at a time.”

Living a long life is perhaps the aspiration of many. If you asked Simón Bolívar, Mandela, Marilyn Monroe, or Elon Musk, their answer would be “yes, I would live that long”; mine, however, would definitely be no. No one knows when the day and hour will come when our body will go to eternal rest. The soul or spirit, depending on each of our beliefs, is another matter. But our time on this planet will depend on the conditions dictated by the environment—and on a planet where we’re all destroying it! I don’t think I have the heart to stay that long.

In my nearly 40 years, I’ve witnessed many things in the world. Of course, I don’t know everything; perhaps in the Congo, Australia, or Singapore, incredible or aberrant things happened that never reached my ears or my mind during this time. Imagine living 300 years, unaware of everything—or, on the other hand, knowing everything and seeing the cycles of destruction repeat themselves.

Extending my life and my time on this planet—I repeat—is not part of my plans. It’s not that I’m wishing for death or anything like that, but I think we all die in one way or another every day.

Just look at our diet, our lifestyle, living for work, the pollution of our planet—OF THE WATERS! We have no water. Will that be called life in 100 or 50 years? I don’t think so, much less in 300 years.

Back in the ’90s, movies about the future—with all the inventions, flying cars—filled the screens, and we marveled: “Wow! The future is going to be amazing,” we’d say. Nothing could be further from our present reality.

Many years later, I realize that there was nothing more selfish than that, because it seems that the ambition of powerful people has always been their overwhelming need to destroy or dominate humanity. Just look at how many jobs are lost every day to machines, how much of nature is destroyed, and how much energy and resources are spent on creating instruments that exterminate the human race. And where do we humans fit in? In that algorithm, where do we have a role and a voice?

I wouldn’t want to live 300 years, or even a hundred, because I know my body isn’t prepared for that pace—a pace that might one day progressively and rapidly eliminate those who aren’t needed or useful. Nor would I want to live that long while being dependent or having to adapt my body and spirit to conditions I’m not used to, such as the pollution of the only air we have—which is non-renewable—or shifting our rhythm to the night because during the day the sun would fry us like eggs.

I would much rather not be without the people I love, the smells I know, the landscapes I’ve experienced; certainly, I would surround myself with many more, form new relationships, and have new experiences; perhaps the concept of “family” won’t be called that in a few years, but living that long doesn’t mean I’d do so like a machine, but rather as a human being who feels and remembers. So I prefer to follow the course of nature and adhere to the law of birth-growth-death.

Thinking positively, if I were to live those 300 years, I could serve as a model for the planet, including helping to improve many living conditions, based on what I “have already experienced,” but even so, I do not accept such a long lifespan on a planet we are slowly destroying. The worst part is that we have nowhere else to live. Will another planet arrive in a few years and will we be able to move there? Will aliens arrive and colonize us? Will we live under the sea, with new living conditions? I don’t know, and I don’t want to find out.

Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts on this week’s topic, the 300th edition of Weekend-Engagement topics. My greatest hope is that you’ll continue for many more weeks (or even 300 years 😊), bringing interesting and exciting topics to the community. CONGRATULATIONS!