AIN'T IT THE TRUTH

A co-worker e-mailed this to me and I really got a kick out of it.

I recently picked a new primary care physician. After two visits
and exhaustive lab test, he said I was doing "fairly well" for my
age.

A little concerned about that comment, I couldn't resist asking
him, "Do you think I'll live to be 80?"

He asked, "well, do you smoke tobacco or drink beer or wine?" "Oh
no", I replied. "I've never done either."


Then he asked, "Do you eat rib-eye steaks and barbecued ribs?" I
said, "No, I heard that all red meat is very unhealthy."

"Do you spend a lot of time in the sun, like playing golf / sailing
/ ballooning / motorcycling / rock climbing?" "No I don't", I said.


He said, "Do you gamble, drive fast cars, or sexually fool around?"
"No", I said. "I have never done any of those things."

He looked at me and said, "Then why do you give a shit if you live to
be 80?"

While I don't do a lot of these things. I believe many in this country are more worried about living long than living period. We're all going to die of SOMETHING. The important thing at the end is to able to look back on a life lived as well as we could and doing the best we could by each other.

There's a character in one of Robert Heinlein's novels (for those unfamiliar with Heinlein, he was one of the classic Sf novelists of the 50's and 60's) reflecting on life in a journal entry. The past is gone, it's over you can't go back, there's no guaranty on the future; all you can be sure of the moment you are in now.

One way or another let's make those nows count the best we can. :-)