14 AUGUST 2023 BORROWED TIME

My three youngest grandchildren all turned 15 over the summer; and all three recently obtained a learner’s permit to drive. I have a fourth great grandchild on the way. My girls’ father, who is five years older than I am, is beginning to show signs of dementia. My daughters worry about possible problems that might arise when he and his current wife can no longer take care of themselves. For some reason, my girls are convinced that I will live for another 20 or 30 years. I beg to differ.

I have been blessed with relatively good health, in spite of the abuse that I have inflicted on my body through years of digging in soil, planting, and weeding. This is not to say that I am immune to old age. I do not waste my time going to medical doctors in order to have them perform numerous tests looking for something that “might” be wrong. I do not imagine future illnesses. I have more important things to dwell on – like the health of my garden and the contentment of my cats. I have not been sick in years, not even with a “common” cold. I never got COVID and I never got the vaccine. I do not volunteer my arm to receive a yearly “flu” shot. In fact, I do not fall for “what if” propaganda to receive any of the yearly “routine” checkups. More importantly, I have no need to garner sympathy. I am surrounded by people who are hypochondriacs. They are consumed with fear and always imagining that there is something wrong. Their fear is precipitated by the medical establishment and Big Pharma. I am grateful that I have not succumbed to the gorilla marketing that has saturated television, radio, magazines, and social media – advertising designed to induce fear into the psychologically vulnerable.

I am living on borrowed time. I have watched the world’s human population jump from only two and a half billion to eight billion during my lifetime. I am happy to move out of the way when my time is up, to make room for the next generation. Regardless of what I have, or have not accomplished by my life’s end, I will not argue. I will make my departure with a bow and a thank you, and blow a kiss to those I leave behind.