On Mortality

Mark this date on your calendar:

Tuesday, July 28, 2037

You might want to have a party or something. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend, for, you see, that will be the date of my death. Or at least that is what the folks at Deathclock.com calculate as my death. Let's see, pulling out the 'ole calculator, that would give me just about four months shy of 74 years of age.

Seventy-four is not a bad number. It would be nice to make it to 75 and celebrate three quarters of a century, but, considering that I could be splattered on the street any day here in Korea while crossing a road or riding my bike (I'll save the Korean traffic rant for another time.), I'll take as much time as I can get. It is a good thing I don't smoke. That would kill me seven years earlier.

Let's see, that gives me about thirty-two more years to play with. Well I still haven't cured cancer, ended hunger, or brought about world peace yet, so I guess I had better get working on those. I wonder if I'll be able to see my children or grandchildren walk on the moon or Mars. Who's kidding who. I'll be lucky if I even have a wife or kids by then. There is no official agenda, but a family would be nice. There are still a lot of places I would like to visit, and that "great American novel" isn't going to write itself. It often seems there is so much to do, but so little time to do it. And then you realize you've just wasted fifteen minutes or more reading someone's blog. Well, as Bertrand Russell once said, "The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."

Here is another important day. Sometime on May 24, 2006 I will only have exactly one billion (1,000,000,000) seconds left to live.

"Time is swift, it races by; Opportunities are born and die... Still you wait and will not try - A bird with wings who dares not rise and fly."
~ A. A. Milne

"The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time."
~ Mark Twain

"Live life so completely that when death comes to you like a thief in the night, there will be nothing left for him to steal."
~ Unknown