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ately, I’m starting to think of life as a game of
Russian Roulette with everyone waiting to see whose number comes up next.
Almost every day, I hear of someone else I know having a terminal illness and I
can’t help but wonder when the hand of fate will tap me – or someone I love.
One shouldn’t dwell on such things, I know, but how can
you not think about death when it’s happening all around you so often?
I’m not alone. I have a friend whose first act every
morning is looking at the obituary. She says she checks the ages of the
deceased to see how many are her age or younger and how many are older.
“Why does it matter?” I asked.
“It doesn’t,” she said, “but it makes me feel a little
better if there are more older ones than there are the same age or younger.
Some days I win. Others, I lose. It’s just a game I play.”
“I don’t even look at the obituary unless I’ve already
heard about a friend or acquaintance dying,”
I told her. “Why look for something depressing?”
Life is short, to be sure! We go from infanthood to
childhood, the teen-age years, young adulthood, adulthood and middle-age. And
then one day, almost without noticing, we slip into the autumn of our lives.
It’s about now we begin to question whether we ran a good race – enjoyed
life to the fullest. It’s when we realize how little time we have left and
either feel regrets or take a bow for a life well-lived.
And we wait for the inevitable winter to set in.
2 comments:
Depressing but beautifully written with so much feeling. Thank you Peggy for making us think and appreciate each day we have.
Artfully written about a subject no one wants to think about.
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