WHAT MADE JACK STAY SO HEALTHY FOR SO LONG?

Good genes definitely help.
He said his family lived to old age, to their late 80's.

Hiking - "there's nothing like it!" - keeping your body moving.
Jack went hiking all day long every Sunday, and up until in his late 80's, also a half-day hike most Monday afternoons. For Jack, hiking was serious business. It meant starting about 9 am and getting in a few hours including a good climb before noon. Some apples for lunch and a nice nap later, another two-to-three-hour hike to get back. After being "inside" for five days in the gallery, spending an entire day breathing the fresh air of Point Reyes was the best tonic according to Jack. On work days, he made sure he put in ten thousand steps with his pedometer. After he took the muni home, he checked his pedometer and walked round several blocks until ten thousand steps was reached.

Eat little, eat only the good stuff.
Like Steve Jobs, Jack had come upon Prof. Arnold Ehret's "Mucusless Healing Diet" in late 60's and his diet became a vegetarian one, with occasinal exceptions and including fish. He did not eat red meat the last fifty years of his life. Ho loved having his salmon, cooked plain in a small oven, twice a week. Jack had an iron will regarding food. He only ate what he considered healthy and good for him. Most days he ate exactly the same things, saying that the body gets used to the nutrition it gets and wants the same on an ongoing basis. He did not carry any fat on his body. He changed his diet ever so slightly gradually over time, limiting himself and giving up on things as he grew older. If his belt started getting tight (he didn't like gadgets, including a scale), he cut down the number of almonds and walnuts during his lunches. He went to the farmers market every Saturday morning and enjoyed buying his food direct from the people who grew them. In buying food as with choosing his artists, he only dealt with people he liked and felt comfortable with.

Stay positive. Eliminate causes of stress from your life. Keep things simple.
Jack was the ultimate optimist. For him the glass was not only half full, but about to get full at any moment. He never got upset or frustrated, let alone angry. He didn't dwell on or even talk about negative things. He did not complain or blame anybody else for anything that happened, with the exception of the general economic situation effecting art sales, which he commented on often. He was careful not to say anything negative about any other person, even someone who may have hurt him in some way. "Just let it go..." he said. He was always looking forward to something good, something positive happening just around the corner. "You never know..." was an oft-heard comment. Another comment he said often was "let's just wait..." He said time was the best judge in most things and when he wasn't sure about something, he simply chose to wait until he received "a sign" to go one way or another. He actually loved waiting, as it gave him more time to think, his favorite activity. He didn't have an aptitude for gadgets, so in order to eliminate potential sources of frustration and stress, he simply eliminated all unnecessary gadgets, including simple things like a carrot peeler. A knife was good enough.

No medication, no doctors. No ointments, no creams, no nothing...
It took a serious illness to get Jack to see a doctor or to take a pill. The last forty-three years of his life when I knew him, he never took even an aspirin. He refused pain medication after his hip surgery because it made him confused. He believed in only one home remedy: a warm glass of water upon rising every morning with the juice of half a lemon. He had started an arthiritic pain in his arm and someone had recommended this. Soon after he started the morning lemon juice routine the pain went away. Jack believed this drink kept arthiritis away from his joints. He had used a cream once on his face that made him confused, and from then on never put anything on his skin. During his last illness he reluctantly took the blood thinning and iron supplement medications and this did not make him happy. In general, he didn't like or trust the medical profession, doctors and medications.

Take care of your spine.
Jack belived in routine chiropractic treatments. Every Friday morning he took the muni to his chiropractor for a twenty-minute treatment (they accepted artwork in payment). He said that the spine is one of the most important organs in the body and thought everybody should take better care of their spine. He had only a couple of back problems in later years and he exercised through them. His morning routine included a series of stretches and light exercise, recommended by his chiropractor and later some recommended by his hip surgeon. He did his exercises while his oats were cooking on the stove immediately upon arising.

"Think, think, think..." Design your life for yourself.
Jack was an "active" thinker. He carefully orchestrated his life to allow him as much "think time" as possible, and his thoughts revolved around simplifying his life, eliminating unnecessary or frustrating things so that he could have the time to enjoy the few activities he really loved - hiking, reading, classical music, spending time with friends, artists and clients and most of all as much time as possible in his beloved gallery. He always said he was so busy thinking when he was alone that he was never bored. To keep his mind active, he read books and poetry in English, German, Dutch and Swedish in addition to his usual work at the gallery. He knew, and often refreshed in his mind, the location, the price and the history of all the art in his care and he remembered all his clients and most of the art he ever sold.

Believe in something greater than yourself.
Jack kept his spirituality very private. He had read extensively about Zen Buddhism and eastern religions, mostly in the 60's and 70's and had a small library of spiritual books. He did not follow any organized form of religious practice. Yet he never started a meal without a long moment or two of silence. He always stated his gratitude for the life he lived and and considered everything as a great gift. He believed in "signs": once he was short his bus fare at Golden Gate Bridge and then found the exact number of pennies on the ground. This made him very happy and bid well for good things to come. He was always looking for connections among seemingly random things that happened in his life.

Keep active - don't ever stop.
Jack made sure that he had something to get up for and get ready for every morning every day of his life, including Sundays. Relaxing, laying about in a vacation mode was not something he wanted to do or enjoyed. Many people recommended in his last years to cut down his work hours but he wouldn't consider it. Retirement was never an option. He intentionally placed and kept himself in a mode of having to do something every day, including Sundays, because he believed this was the best strategy for long-term health. And as usual, he was right.