Singer himself hasn't been untouched by change. In 1995, his small group became part of a 1,000-member group. Then last spring they decided to get rid of our group. They tried to sell it. Part of Singer's strategy came to him quite by accident, at a lecture given by Thomas Perls, MD, MPH, lead investigator of the New England Centenarian Study, an ongoing study of centenarians and their families in and around Boston.
Singer explains that centenarians have three traits in common.
Maybe their hobby is oil painting. So they're always stretching their minds. Second, they're very tolerant. They have strongly held beliefs but are open to understanding that other people have very different beliefs. Third, they accept loss.