Do I have Time Enough for Love ?

Lessons from the novel by Robert J. Heinlein

It is hard to believe, but I am 70 years old. That means seven decades of life experience. I have seen birth. I have seen death. I have experienced love. I have experienced loss. When you live long enough, you see those you love pass away, and yet you go on. Sometimes you wonder if you will live long enough to lose everyone you ever cared about. That is why I keep thinking about Robert Heinlein’s novel Time Enough for Love. It is my favorite fiction book. It remains my favorite not just due to Heinlein’s prescience, but because the plot and the lead character become more relevant the older I get.

Heinlein was born in Missouri in 1907. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1929. Heinlein was 66 years old when he released Time Enough for Love on June 19, 1973. By that time in his writing career, he had already written Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), Starship Troopers (1959), and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966). He must have been feeling the same way I was when he created the novel’s central character, Lazarus Long, who is 2000 years old and tired of outliving those he loves.

Lazarus has a fortunate genetic anomaly that allows him to age very slowly and to recover rapidly from injuries. The book explains that certain other humans (members of the “Howard Families”) have similar genetics but do not live as long as Lazarus. In addition, the book describes how, in the future, after humans have colonized other planets, “Rejuvenation Clinics” are used by…