Lordy Lordy

Next week, my beloved turns the Big 4-0; she's about 9 months older than me which means that I was conceived around the time she was born. It's nice being similar ages as we both grew up with the same music and TV shows. Course pretty much everybody born in the 70's grew up with the Brady Bunch, but still. Right now, she's watching season four of the early 70's program, "Emergency!" It was a forerunner to shows like "ER" and "Third Watch". I bought her season 5 for her birthday.

As we grow older, I wonder how long we'll live, what conditions we'll be afflicted with, what crosses we'll have to bear. It's pretty incredible when you think about it, that everybody dies. To the young, death seems a lifetime away, but eventually those lazy summers and cold winters turn into decades and you're well into middle age.

I read an article in TIME magazine recently about the Top 5 causes of death for each age group. For my age range (35-44), they are accidents, cancer, heart disease, suicide, and homicide. Ten years from now, when I am in my late 40's, the Top 5 things I could die from are cancer, heart disease, accidents, liver disease, and suicide. A person over 65's Top 5 is heart disease, cancer, stroke, respiratory diseases, and accidents a very distant fifth.

Whether I die from heart disease, cancer, or somebody twisting my balls off in a vice, it's gonna happen someday. Until then, there's not much I can do other than try to enjoy life and stay away from Industrial Arts classrooms.