Poncing de Leon

Last night's news aired a segment about some gene alteration--one scientist said it could turn into a "pill"--that will make you be like 45 again when you're 80. The scientist talks were intercut with videos of old people in a fairly nice institution doing aerobics and lifting weights. Now the prospect is being held forth (and face it the idea's been around for decades at least) that lifespans can be extended to live a hundred years or longer feeling like age 45.

The image that haunts me is these happy old people in their lines with their dancing and I'm thinking is this how they see it, then, the researchers? More and more people living in these places doing aerobics and taking the pill? Or rather will it be like the fantasy I used to have about my mother, that she would get better and younger and leave her wheel chair and demand her checkbook back and her car keys? Will the young old people then have to go out and get jobs because who can afford decades and decades of nursing home prices? Or will they just be condemned to dance for eternity?