15 Craigside, a senior's community, where I live, must have a dozen activities daily.  Mostly exercise classes, but also special events.  One recent one, Malt Shop Memories, was organized by Joy and Gary. Also, 15 Craigside was royally entertained by Grant Murata.   You need to read his story to appreciate his life ,  written by Jodie Chiemi Ching.    He is Hawaii's Uta-Sanshin Master, Grant Masanduu Sadami Murata. Adopted by a Japanese family in Hawaii, he later in life learned he was Okinawan.  Learned to play the sanshin, became a master sensei, and is founder of Afuso Ryu Choichi Kai USA in Hawaii and Los Angeles. Who Am I?  I COME FROM MORE THAN ONE MOTHER, MORE THAN ONE CULTURE, MORE THAN ONE ANCESTRAL LAND I CALL MY HOME. WHAT’S IN YOUR BLOOD MATTERS LESS THAN WHAT’S IN YOUR HEART. There is a  Part 2, where Murata searches for his roots , written last year. Grant Murata today, is 61 years old. For 30 of those years, he had no know...

When I was born in 1940, my life expectancy was supposed to be 60.8 .  Thus, I should have died in 2001.  I just celebrated my 84th birthday.   There are several organizations that provide an annual announcement of life expectancy for countries of the world.  Here is one from the  United Nations .  Only includes countries with populations over 50,000.  Thus, Monaco at 86.37 years and San Marino at 85.71 years did not qualify. Depending on the country, women generally live around 5 to 6 years longer than men.  Ukraine is an outlier, as because of the war, women have a life expectancy of 80.20, while men are at 66.9. For the World, the life expectancy at birth is 73.17, 70.55 for men and 75.89 for women. Note that these numbers refer to how long a newborn baby will live. Life expectancy  ( m for men and w for women ).  The fourth number surprises me.  This is the life expectancy of person at the age of 80.  Thus, looks ...