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June 7, 2005
The Price of the Thrill
The other night I was having a discussion about the dues of various organizations, and whether or not they were worth the price. I mentioned that I belong to a group whose dues are $85/month, and the assembled crowd looked at me like I had just landed from Mars. This is a group of folks who are quite accustomed to being looked at like *they* just landed from Mars, so I guess I had to be pretty weird to belong to a group whose dues are so much.
Then today I got out my Suzanne Vega "Nine Objects of Desire" CD, one I hadn't listened to in quite awhile, and was listening to "No Cheap Thrill." Remembering how when I first joined the Three Hundred I said to someone who questioned my willingness to put out so much money, "It's just the price of the thrill." I felt like I had already gained so much health and life from my practice of CR that I owed at least $85/month, and that the prospect of finding real anti-aging therapies that could do far more than CR or CR mimetics could dream of was more than worth the financial commitment of the Three Hundred.
I have always been willing to pay a lot -- in terms of money, time, effort, of emotional energy -- for something to be enthusiastic about. The other day I was the home of a couple I recently met, and on their fridge door was a bumper sticker that read "In Search of the Eternal Buzz." Wow, could I identify! And as someone who has always been too terrified to try any drug stronger than red wine, I've had to look to non-chemical sources for entertainment.
Certainly there is nothing like the thrill of helping workers organize: being the vehicle through which their dreams and passions can take some form of reality. I've paid the price of being an organizer in many early mornings, late nights, and lots of heartbreak.
CR has been one thrill after another. From the initial euphoria of weight loss to the shocking discovery that my anxiety seemed to disappear when confronted with low calorie levels to the achievement of a level of health and happiness that I'd never known existed, it's been worth far more than the $35 I paid to join the CR Society. And it's been worth the price in time and effort, in brain cells used up by memorizing the complete works of MR, the price of social struggles and accusations of anorexia and dealing with the oddness as well as the joy of being thin.
I won't even attempt to take on the subject of falling in love. If you've been there, you know. I won't trivialize the experience by attempting to account for it in terms of any material price. Nothing I ever could have done or ever might do could make me worthy of the joy I have experienced since I first held my orange angel in my arms. You see, I am a Protestant... I do not believe that one gets MR through works, only by divine grace. Though the blog certainly helped get his attention.
I am willing to pay a high and unusual price for the life I lead: hard work, strange looks, occasional hunger, stepping away from the "normal" life of marriage, children, and the things that women of thirty are supposed to want.
I think that I have been willing to pay a comparatively high price because I am very clear about what I want. A long, healthy life, full of youthful energy when I am old and wise. Many years to stare into my angel's eyes. To remain beautiful long past the time when women are supposed to have grown out of such things. To live long enough to see the insurance money from that car accident I had two and a half weeks ago.
When you believe in something, you're willing to sacrifice for it.
In fact, a good way to find out what someone truly believes is to see what he or she is willing to pay for it. Not just in terms of money, but time, effort, energy. Some say they want to live a long and healthy life, yet they're not willing to put the effort into preparing healty foods.
Who would turn down the drug that would restore them to youth and health? Who would not sacrifice everything the had to give this pill to someone they loved, someone they could not imagine living without?
Yet today, who is donating to the Mprize?
What we do now, today, with our money and our time and our efforts, will decide whether or not real anti-aging biomedicine will exist in our lifetimes.
Or in the lifetimes of those we love.
Have you seen Star Wars, Episode 3 yet? If you haven't, stop reading now.
Aniken turns to the Dark Side because the Chancellor (soon to be Emperor -- you'll recognize him as he gets a little green) offers him the chance to save his wife from what Aniken believes to be certain death. The Chancellor says he knows the secret of Immortality, and that it comes from the Dark Side. Aniken wants nothing more than to save the woman he loves. And who can blame him... Natalie Portman is hot!
At the time when I saw the movie, I thought to myself, "This will not be good for the Mprize. People will think that Aubrey is the Chancellor, and that MR is Aniken turned to the Dark Side."
I would like all to know that I am not pregnant with twins, or anything. How horrible. I think I can speak for both of us when I say that we consider children more terrifying than aging.
My point being, Aniken gave up his soul in an attempt (failed) to save the woman he loved. No one is asking you to turn to the Dark Side... all we're talking about here is donating money!
We have the choice, right now, to do something that will add years of health to our own lives and to those of the ones we love.
So why haven't you donated to the Mprize? Cause you don't believe in it? Why not? Do you think that it's a waste of time to hope for a future in which our lives are not ruined by debilitating disease, just as we are finally learning how to be grown-ups?
Do you have a better idea?
All of you can donate to the Mprize. You have the money to pay for an internet connection, you can donate something small to the Prize. If you really care, you can join the Three Hundred.
You get the future you pay for.
Posted by april at June 7, 2005 7:48 PM
Comments
Just noticed we have 50 members on the 300 hundred now ! :)
Whats the chances of reaching a target of 100 members by the end of the year?
I'm gonna talk to a few of the 'more well off' people in my family sometime soon. I'll see If I can get any of them to donate or join the 300. Although I can't just dump it on them and say, hey join the 300 now ! hehe... I'll just explain to them the whole thing over a period of time and see what they think.
Could we get to one hundred members by the end of 05... or get a few million/billionairs =/
Hey, anyone happen to have Bill gates number..
hehe
Posted by: Matt at June 8, 2005 9:18 AM
You'd be amazed what people would "give anything" for, but don't. I've tried CR twice in the past, but gave up both times after about three months.
Then, a little over a year ago, I found out about the MPrize and Aubrey de Grey and the prospect of advancing biotechnology enough to add decades to our lives. I saw the empassioned pleas of people like Reason from the Longevity Meme, asking people to do what it takes to live long enough to take advantage of these new technologies. One of the biggest suggestions was (surprise, surprise) Calorie Restriction.
I was unemployed at the time, yet I found a way to donate $100 to the MPrize. I fought hard to help advocate the cause of longevity research. But did I start CR? No.
I mean, if I was so broke from being unemployed, you'd think the practical benefit of spending less money on food would have been reason enough. Instead, depression combined with a rabid appetite pushed my weight UP!
So I don't find it terribly surprising that people would fight and do just about anything to accomplish something, and then just do nothing.
Posted by: Jay Fox at June 10, 2005 9:33 AM