Opinion | The secret to living well to 109 — or any age

Those seven years, David writes in the latest Opinions Essay, yielded a grand friendship — and an education, too. In his long life, Charlie sorted out one of the essential questions: “What does it take to live joyfully while experiencing disruption?”

By the end, David writes, Charlie had boiled his findings down to a one-page “operating code of life.”

David shares some of those lessons in the essay, and more in the upcoming book from which it’s adapted. For a man whose early life included the loss of his father in a freak elevator accident, they are remarkably optimistic. And given all the destabilizing change Charlie survived, they show a striking lust for the new.

The one thing Charlie never figured out was how exactly he lived so long. But no matter. “He learned early — and never forgot,” David writes, “that the crucial measure of one’s existence is not its length but its depth.”

Chaser: Former reporter Vincent Burke wrote last year that the key to life is rating it. Even better, grade your existence while you still have time to change things.

Public life at 80-something

If only celebrating age were always so uncomplicated! Alas, anyone who’s ever skimped on the birthday candles knows that’s not the case.

It’s especially fraught in public life right now, with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 89, recently returned to Congress after recovering from shingles. Ask her, though, and she might say she wasn’t ever away. That’s what makes her one of the high-ranking officials who columnist Kathleen Parker frets are “teetering on the brink of non compos mentis.”

Or consider Sen. Charles E. Grassley, who’ll be 95 by the end of his term. “Can’t a case be made for going home as a gesture of good manners and fair play,” Kathleen asks, “to give someone else a turn at the wheel?”

Don’t get her started on our octogenarian president.

The Editorial Board is also concerned about President Biden’s age. Actuarial data says that, statistically, he probably has less than a decade left; obviously, his death or disability would blow up a whole branch of government.

But the board explains that voters should not compare Biden “with the alternatives they wish they had but … with the ones they do.” That alternative might very well be former president Donald Trump, age 76.

Chaser: Humor columnist Alexandra Petri writes that if you’re seeking a fulfilling retirement community, look no further than the U.S. Senate.

From journalist Bill Saporito’s op-ed arguing that the Supreme Court should rule in an upcoming case that all players should be compensated for their time practicing and playing.

Basically, he asks, why shouldn’t these young adults get paid for serving their university, just as their friends working the dining hall or bookstore do — or “the hot-dog sellers in the stadium where [they] perform”?

The pushback is that sports is more like the marching band or student theater than a job job. Hmm. While my 2013 production of “Sweeney Todd” made upward of $27 for the university, it doesn’t quite compare with the $1 billion a year the Big Ten Conference alone makes for football broadcast rights.

Maybe spread that money around a bit, Saporito writes, so the vaunted “love of the game” doesn’t have to come at so high an opportunity cost.

Chaser: Columnist Helaine Olen explained how student-athletes’ big 2021 win at the Supreme Court over education-related benefits was a score for workers’ rights.

When Ukrainians talk about plans for their post-conflict lives, they don’t say “after the war.” They say “after the victory.”

That’s one of the most interesting bits of new reporting from Max Boot, who — after spending a week in Kyiv — is more confident than ever that Ukraine can win. That means winning on its own terms, too — with all of its territory recovered from Russia.

Russia, Max writes, is in disarray and “mired in the blame game.” Meanwhile, Kyiv is thriving, buzzing with traffic and jam-packed bars in addition to the air-raid phone notifications. Ukrainians have already taken the worst dictator Vladimir Putin will dish out, and they’ve made it through unbroken. Now, Max explains how they make it to the end.

Chaser: Catch up on columnist David Ignatius’s biweekly foreign policy Q&A with readers, who today asked about Ukraine’s coming counteroffensive.

• Columnist Jennifer Rubin writes that critics might reconsider their gripes after seeing the solid fraud case the Manhattan district attorney is putting together against Trump.
• Student loan relief was meant to get people spending more and saving more. Columnist Megan McArdle writes that you can’t have both.
• Caring for loved ones should be a fundamental right, author Emily Kenway writes. Why isn’t it?

It’s a goodbye. It’s a haiku. It’s… The Bye-Ku.

Life’s field waits for us

To putter through or dig in —

Have your own newsy haiku? Email it to me, along with any questions/comments/ambiguities. See you tomorrow!