I am now in the later stages of my life where I occasionally think about how my interesting sojourn on this mortal coil may end. What denouement does life have up its sleeve for my final act? Will it just be more of the same, a continuation of this gradual downward spiral? Will it be adding an inclinator to get up the stairs? Having to give up driving and become dependent upon others for basic transportation needs? Learning to walk with a cane, a walker or crutches? Moving into senior housing or to an assisted care facility? Spending my remaining years in a nursing home or hospice? Or… getting hit by a truck while crossing the street?
Ever the optimist, I do not picture myself as eventually deceased. Why even think about it? It will happen when it happens, so why waste time thinking about it? I do not find it at all surprising that there is no “fear of dying” coloring these sober thoughts. I fully expect to “drop dead” unexpectedly as I almost did last March after my last colonoscopy.
Extreme pain, the bogeyman of many of these scenarios, on the other hand, is not longer a worrisome potential in any prolonged dying scenario. I has been totally eliminated by ever-growing pharmacologicalexpertise.
What is of some concern, at least initially, is the very real potential for mild or sever cognitive impairment. That concern is always front in center at my age. While I still consider myself “compos mentis,” this concern dissipated once I realized if and when it eventually happens I will not be at all aware of it.
This area of introspection always comes to the same inescapable conclusion, one’s time is so much better spent choosing then implementing positive ways of improving life’s satisfactions and gratifications in the here and now.
You want suggestions?
• Learn a new language and subscribe to a newspaper or magazine in that language.
• Sign up for a class in whatever interests you: painting, sculpture, cooking, anything you choose.
• Volunteer at the local food bank or hospital.
• Plan then take an extended vacation to, say, the Cote d’Azur, and keep a detailed trip journal.
• Plan, grow and tend a small vegetable garden.
• Read a book a week alternating between fiction and non-fiction.
• If you have a specific skill, share it by tutoring a student.
• Try writing a poem that rhymes and then write another that does not.
• Look into every photo album and write on the back of each photo all identifying information you can possibly remember.
• Weed out your closets of everything you no longer wear and donate to the Salvation Army.
• Start corresponding on a regular basis with all of your out-of-town family and friends.
• If something in the news bothers you, write a letter to the editor. Do not worry about misspellings, editors love then [sic]!
Find something slightly challenging to do, persevere and thrive!
I write a weekly newsletter for a service club, volunteer at an art museum, and write short essays about human nature and, in this instance, about the end zone.
What is it that you do?