This morning a friend of mine called to talk about a cancer scare he’s dealing with. We discussed the future, wills, and other matters for a while so he could get back on a less shaky ground. It put me on the back foot a bit, but I had most of the page completed, so it didn’t affect my schedule all that much. It certainly sapped my energy though. My peers and I are reaching that age where when you pass away people are progressively less surprised by it. We’re of that generation that will likely live shorter lives than our parents because of various factors beyond our control. Obviously I worry, but at the same time I’m not always all that disappointed that my life expectancy is so much shorter than it was for a generation prior to me.
I feel like I’ve been purposely lied to a lot of the time, and misled without malice for much of the remainder. My parent’s advice to me was good for the world as it existed when they were young, but in retrospect I might well have done better if I simply kept playing video games and being verbally abusive to people, with the addition of filming it. I’ve always been one step behind on these cultural shifts. Never capable of being able to gather the tools required to accel until it’s just a little too late.
At this point my only goal as far as life expectancy is concerned is to outlive my parents, so that they don’t have to deal with my death. After that I have no expectation for anything more. A single man in the United States isn’t going to do all that well generally, and when you add in all the things wrong with me outliving my mother is seeming less and less achievable.
My grandparents outlived 50% of their children. Looking over the records my mother has uncovered for genealogical purposes that’s not that bad of a score historically. Of course our ancestors were having a lot more children so it may not be fair to compare those numbers. I think one of our great X? grandmothers had 11 to 14 kids. My grandparents had 4. My parents technically had 1. I’ve had zero and I’m not doing a very good job of managing myself, so the system is breaking down no matter how you do the math. Unfortunately some of us statistically must be evolutionary cul-de-sacs. I drew a bad hand and did the best with it I could. I’ve been bluffing for a long time but eventually the call will come.
Gotta know when to hold ’em, etc.

Anyway, that’s all as may be. Hopefully there are more days for you and I to enjoy as best we can before the reaper calls us home. Stay under his radar as best you can. Let’s meet up on Monday if we win hide and seek for another weekend, shall we?

Posts authored by Jackie

2782 The Man In The Boat.