Especially with the arrival of ChatGPT and other artificially intelligent helpers, if you want to be a durable human, you need to know how you differ from machines.

For starters, you are completely one-of-a-kind, whereas machines can be duplicated endlessly. You’re also a powerhouse of resources, starting with your masterful palette of senses. Sure, that’s the Famous Five, but also intuition, compassion, humor, and muscle memory, to name just a few. Children embody the all-important sense of wonder. (Read more in The Durable Human Manifesto)

Unlike what can be the seesaw of resilient, if you are durable, you are consistently active and effective for as long as possible.

Being a fully expressed “Durable Human” is an ideal. Like playing golf, you never quite reach perfection. But my dad came close. 

A Mind of His Own

Consider how he lived just one day we were together in October 2022. He was 98 ¾ years old. It would have been the 75th anniversary of marrying my mom, who had passed away 10 years before.

As he did first thing each morning, my dad read two newspapers. Later, he’d watch the evening news and often recorded other news, information, or entertainment shows to view at his convenience.

Sometimes he was troubled by what he read or saw, but he had a neat trick for staying on the bright side.