I had the fortunate opportunity to see Ken Burns speak last week at the annual dinner of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. His presentation included a sneak peak at the upcoming series on Prohibition, which looks to be classic Ken Burns—beautiful, thoughtful, relevant and worth investing the time to take it all in.
Ken is 57 but looks at least ten years younger, and maybe even 20.
You’ll be happy to know, however, that I took more away from the presentation than Ken Burn’s youthful appearance, though I mention it for a very particular reason.
The Longevity Project, a twenty year study by Howard S. Friedman and Leslie R. Martin, was recently published. It concludes that longevity is a function of three roughly equal factors: genes, chance, and lifestyle.
Genes are genes.
Chance has to do with major life events, such as fighting in World War II (where those deployed overseas died at a greater rate after the war than those deployed at home), or divorce, the single strongest social predictor of a child’s longevity.
The factor over which we presumably have the greatest control, however, is lifestyle, and what Friedman and Martin found will warm the cockles of every slightly-anal, somewhat-obsessive heart out there. What makes for a long life is not happiness, optimism, or even equanimity. “The findings clearly revealed that the best childhood personality predictor of longevity was conscientiousness, the qualities of a prudent, persistent, well-organized person—somewhat obsessive and not at all carefree.”
When Ken Burns spoke he evoked the poetry of America in the way he described his films and their import. But when it came to Q&A, he went decidedly Russian. In answer to the question, “What are you working on after the Prohibition series?” he told the audience that he and his company—"just a little bit like Stalin”—work on ten year plans. Burns then proceeded to lay out a decade of forecasted film making, beginning with a series on the American Dust Bowl and ending with a biography of Jackie Robinson. Bang, bang, bang. I didn’t take notes, but it sounded as if seven or eight enormous projects are all being carefully nurtured at various points in their development.
I can almost picture the war room and the giant Gantt Chart back at the offices of Florentine Films, though it’s a hard visualization because it collides head-on with the beauty of, say, the series on Jazz, the Civil War, or the National Parks.
So, I’m sitting at dinner laughing to myself, thinking about The Longevity Project conclusions while listening to "the picture of" a living, breathing Dorian Gray who just happens to be one of the most diligent, organized, intentional and conscientious craftsmen around.
Ken Burns also mentioned that he spends 300 days a year fundraising, which has to be terrifically stressful. But, The Longevity Project concludes, that’s not necessarily a negative factor in longevity. “People think everyone should take it easy, but a hard job that is stressful can also lead to longevity.” Not a job you don’t like, mind you: bad stress kills. But a challenging, difficult job that you love, and can be successful doing, can be a source of longevity.
If you are fortunate enough to have one of those jobs, consider yourself lucky. If you have not yet found one, you might steal a page from Ken Burns' playbook and make it the first item on your (brand new, starting-in-the-morning) ten-year plan.
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