Skip to main content

over the hill and a long way down

I always thought I was pretty comfortable with the idea of aging. We all do it, even if our culture tells us we shouldn't. But a few days ago it struck me that my Dad was turning 60 (he actually turned 60 yesterday) and to be honest I kinda freaked. You see, If my Dad is 60 and the average male in North America dies at the age of 70, that brings my dad closer to dying then I'm comfortable with. Granted he could die like anyone else at any time, but getting older is a really good reminder of its immenent arrival. Death is a funny thing in our culture. It's both flaunted in our media as entertainment and hidden from society as a whole in institutions which deal with such things (old folks homes, hospitals, hospices, etc). This leaves many of us with an inorganic and slightly confused perspective on death. My reaction to it is similar to my reaction to air flight. Yes, yes I know its safer than traveling by car, but does that make me any less anxious about flying? No. Similarly knowing that I'll see my loved ones again and that death is hardly the end doesn't make it any easier to swallow in the present. I guess I hope my personal experience of death will be similar to my personal experience of flying...limited and involving being hopped up on happy pills!   

Comments

  1. ~mJuly 20, 2010 at 11:37 AM

    this may be small comfort, but remember that life expectancy is calculated at birth. once he's made it to 60, a man's life expectancy is probably closer to mid-80s.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Excursions in beautiful Riviera Nayarit!

Well it's been just over a week now since I got back from my vacation. When I look back it's clear that outside of the normal bumps of any vacation, it was a very pleasant one! My parents and I flew into Puerto Vallarta at around 4pm on Friday July 1. As we stumbled into the crowded airport and attempted to manuever our way through the throngs of sales people, the kissy faces of a number of Mexican men made me suddenly all too conscious of my "Kiss me I'm Canadian" shirt. Oh well, like anyone would dare try with my Mom nearby (she gives off very protective Mom vibes...I think it may be because she's very protective). Anyway after a run in with a sales man who had briefly convinced us he was our Sun Wing Rep, we managed to slump into a nice air conditioned bus that took us the 20 minutes or so to Riviera Nayarit and up to our Resort "Riu Jalisco". It took me a good part of the trip to realize that the "j" is Jalisco is pronounced "h...
1 comment
Read more

Inspiration

I don't know if this is something that everyone does or not, but I have a stack of movies that I go to when I need inspiration. I guess they might be among my favorite movies, but it's more than that. These movies are the one's that give me something that I need at the time whether it be hope, joy, courage, or inspiration. Each one touches me in a different way. These are the movies that I will likely watch at least once a year and in some cases many times in a year. Do you have a movie or movies that do the same for you? Maybe it's a romance that reminds you that love is real and possible, or an action that pumps you up and makes you feel like you can do anything. Here's my list! 1) The Lord of the Rings Trilogy 2) Pride and Prejudice 3) The Sound of Music 4) Sister Act 1 and 2 5) Gone with the Wind 6) Yentl 7) Bruce Almighty 8) The Phantom of the Opera 9) Up 10) Tangled (new to the list) There are probably a lot more, but I can't think of them o...
1 comment
Read more

NaNoWriMo!

Hi Friends! After our fun discussions during coffee on Wednesday night I was inspired to write a bare bones summary of my Nanowrimo (Nation Novel Writing Month) novelette. It is very much a work in progress, but here is the summary of what I'm thinking of writing so far! The year is 2010 and the heroine is a 30 year old career focused historian named Chloe. Her area of research is on literature and art during the early middle ages (5 th to 1000 th century) and her and her assistant Luke are on a flight from Canada to London where she is supposed to be speaking at a conference on monasticism during the dark ages . Chloe decides to arrive a week early so she can take a train up to the Northern edge of Scotland and make her way up to the island of Iona where she can spend some time in peace and quiet to retreat and prepare for her conference. Her assistant decides to join her as he has recently broken up with his girlfriend and is hoping to dive into work and take his mind of his w...
2 comments
Read more