Death Is Capricious

PART 1:

Betty White died on December 31, 2021 at the age of 99.

It was New Year's Eve for Christ sake. Her 100th birthday would have been on January 17th of 2022.

Death couldn't leave well enough alone.

Let her ring in the new year, let her see her 100th. Death snickers as it kills.

PART 2:

A special called "All Madden" aired on December 25th, 2021. Christmas Day. It was a celebration of the legendary life of legendary football personality John Madden. I was excited to watch it because he was such a unique and likeable human. I had been waiting to see this special since the hype began a month before.

I didn't catch it on Christmas Day because my family distracted me with love, laughter and fun.

And then.......John Madden up and died on December 28th at the age of 85.

Death snickers again.

Thankfully Madden got to see, comment on and enjoy the finished product. But, come on, fans were basking in the glow of this man's life, making their lives a little better and then BOOM! he was gone.

I didn't watch it until after his death and it was definitely melancholy.

MORE:

I have feared for a long time that I will die the day after I figure my life out. So I'm a little nervous. Luckily I am fortified with positivity in 2022 so I am not thinking so darkly.

I had to shovel snow yesterday. Snow that weighed 2 tons per shovelful. It was brutal.

The guy that shovels us out is on vacation and out of the country.

It took me over 2 hours. 2 hours of sweating, heavy breathing and eventually - exhaustion. I try to keep Carol in the house but - trooper that she is - she came out to help me in the end.

The husband (Butch) of Carol's closest friend died many years ago after a winter storm. He was roof raking snow off his roof and just keeled over backwards, dead in the snow of a heart attack. He was in his fifties.

Since then, every time I have to shovel snow I think of him. That was a part of the decision a few years ago to get someone to shovel for us. It has been a sweet luxury.

But yesterday circumstances conspired against me and forced me out of the house.

I am enormously fat. Three or four shovelfuls, stop to catch my breath. Repeat.

I survived, but I kept coming back to Betty White, John Madden and......Butch.

And my friend Tom Brigham. Death has risen to the top of the list of motivators for me in 2022.

Death is a sneaky, malicious bastard and would not hesitate to cut me down right in the middle of the happiest moment of my life.

So I am wary. And getting much better at appreciating the moment. Carol is the main target and the perfect teacher - so positive, always laughing and digging on small moments. Every single day now my soul is warmed in little, life-giving ways, thanks to her.

Christmas and my belated birthday celebration last weekend gave me the opportunity to dig on Craig & Amanda and Keith & Krista. They feed my soul exactly as Carol does. I look at them in wonder and nourish my soul through their intelligence and sense of humor, their unique perspectives and the distinctive aspects that makes each of them who they are.

Gratitude, baby - gratitude. I delight in my family as an epicurean delights in a fine meal.

Death is there - it is lurking and has staked out a permanenet position in a dark corner of my mind.

But until it triumphs, I will drink in all the goodness of my life like humanity's most thirsty soul.