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Last Updated: Aug 28, 2009 - 10:45:21 AM |
Will Fearless Leader Be Set Adrift On The Ice Floe Someday?
It’s largely considered a myth that Eskimos would consign their failing elderly to an ice floe, set adrift to die a lonely death, because the tribe can no longer care for them. In early August, the guy in the White House will turn forty-eight. I hope he has a very happy birthday. Yet, if I were him – I’m glad I’m not, of course -- I’d think long and hard about that life ending counseling provision in the currently-being-debated health care proposal he and his left of center brethren are ramming down America’s collective throat. Politics aside – his and mine couldn’t be further apart – as an older guy, I’m willing to give him some advice about aging. At sixty-three, biologically speaking, I’m just old enough that I could have fathered him. I’m glad I didn’t.
However, the words of wisdom I impart now are shared in a spirit of good feeling, should the guy in the White House ever learn of these words. It wasn’t that long ago that I turned forty-eight myself. I had no idea that in little more than a year I’d have a daughter-in-law, that in two years I’d be a grandfather for the first of – so far – five times. You blink and our son and his wife have been married fourteen years – today, actually. You blink and their oldest just turned thirteen at the beginning of the month.
Our little girl, who sat in the palm of my hand and almost scared us to death when she hid from us in a magnolia tree is a mother herself. I blinked a lot at her wedding. Blink again and she and her husband have been married six years and their little girl is pushing toward two and a half.
You blink and that drop dead gorgeous girl you fell in love with in high school has been your wife for almost forty-one years and she’s still drop dead gorgeous and you love each other more than ever.
You blink and you blink and sometimes it’s not even as if you blinked, but the time goes and can’t be retrieved. Sharon and I plan on being around a very long time yet, go for the record in number of years married and stay together after death.
The point I’m making to the guy who lives in the White House is that he blinks, too. We all do. Does he want to be consigned to the figurative ice floe because statistics tell us the last year of life costs one-quarter of the whole tab for keeping an older person alive? When the guy in the White House has blinked a lot more, I think he may see life ending counseling for what it is – a disgrace to even be considered.
Visit Jerry Ahern at www.jerryahern.com
© Copyright 2009 by DOWN RANGE TV
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