At 40, a man living in the United States has used up more than half of his statistical years; the average man dies at around 75 years old in this country.

That’s a lot of years! It’s not enough; I’d like to keep going, ad infinitum. Tons to experience, plenty left to learn. But I’ll take what I can get. It’s a hell of a lot more years than even very recent generations could have hoped for.

I tend to think of age a bit like I think of generational labels like Boomer and Millennial and Gen Z...