The Errant Æsthete

How long you live, whether you win or lose cancer lotto or Parkinson’s bingo, have little to do, says Michael Kinsley for the New Yorker, with life’s other successes…

“It is a treasured corollary of the American Dream that most people who are successful in midlife were losers in high school. As you enter adult life, values change and the deck is reshuffled. You get another chance, and maybe, if you’re lucky, the last laugh. But it isn’t the last laugh. The deck is shuffled again as you enter the last chapter. How long you live, how fast you age, whether you win or lose the cancer sweepstakes or the Parkinson’s bingo—all these have little to do with the factors that determined your success or failure in the previous round. And there is justice in that.”