death

A recent story over at the BBC — "Why do Americans die younger than Britons?" — looks at life expectancy figures across Canada, the U.S., the UK, Japan and Australia. And, interestingly, the U.S. is lagging behind.

Stacy Morrison put aside her feelings when she quit her high-flying job to care for her dying mother, despite their turbulent relationship. Six months later, an undiscovered letter helped the former editor-in-chief of Redbook magazine come to terms with a troubled family legacy

I am currently trying to starve a cold (due less to science, and more to a phlegm-induced lack of appetite), so I guess this might count as good news. According to recent research reported by USA Today — "Could 'extreme' low-cal diets bring longer, healthier life?" — living in a state of constant deprivation might help extend your life. (Though it's debatable just how happy you'll be in the meantime if you have to forsake fried chicken, key lime pie and pork belly sandwiches. But maybe I'm just projecting.)

You might think that being happy is the fairly obvious answer to all of your problems. But it turns out that happiness might in fact be the worst solution ever to one of life's biggest problems: the inevitability of death. According to a recent story by Richard Alleyne in the Telegraph — "Feeling happy? Don't be too smug as chances are you will die young" — people who are excessively joyful are more likely to die young than their more dour peers.

Meghan O'Rourke, author of The Long Goodbye, explains the experience of grieving her mother's death and how and when she started to feel like herself again.