Breathe
By Daniella Blejer
To be immortal is trivial; except for man, all creatures are immortal because they ignore death;
the divine, the terrible, the incomprehensible, is to know oneself to be immortal.
Jorge Luis Borges, "The Immortal".
Recently, while watching the Netflix documentary "Don't Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever", I was reminded of the novel Sostiene Pereira ( Anagrama, 1994) by Antonio Tabucchi, set in Lisbon in 1938 during the dictatorship that ruled Portugal for forty-one years. Every time I recall reading it, I am moved again by the endearing encounter between Pereira, an apolitical journalist, downhill on life's treadmill, who talks every day with his deceased wife; and Monteiro Rossi, a young philosopher who wants to change the world. Pereira, who runs a cultural newspaper, upon meeting Rossi, who has written a thesis on death, offers to take charge of the obituaries. The job consists of writing in advance the obituaries of famous writers, still alive, so that they can be ready by the time one of them passes away. From the encounter with the young idealist, Pereira's life will be turned upside down, and he will soon stop focusing on his relationship with his late wife and on the literature of the past to become aware of the reality of the authoritarian regime in which he lives. By helping Rossi and other young republicans in the fight against Franco's fascism, he dares to denounce his own regime and flee Lisbon in search of freedom. In a way, the encounter with Rossi triggered in Pereira the need to live as if someone were about to write his obituary.
On the opposite side of the spectrum from the necessary tension between life and death - for only by being aware of our finitude can we appreciate the meaning of being alive - are phenomena such as Bryan Johnson's Project Blueprint, dedicated to fighting aging. The 47-year-old entrepreneur, in pursuit of longevity, has included in his routine practices such as calorie restriction, taking countless supplements, a strict sleep schedule, frequent diagnostic tests and experimentation with plasma therapies. Johnson, as a good entrepreneur, has found a way to market his protocol through the Don't Die website where he promotes supplements, exercise routines, diets and lifestyles at the click of a button. While scientists in the field of longevity are skeptical and argue that genetics plays a central role in life expectancy, Bryan Johnson has 1.6 million followers from all over the world who trust him and buy the products he recommends without question; another example of the great convening power that influencers have over experts in our time.
