The holiday season provides opportunities for all sorts reflections.
Here's one that's likely to keep you entertained.
For most of us, 'Death' and 'Dying' are 'touchy' (taboo, even) subjects.
So, when a friend recently asked me this question: 'How many summers do you think you have left?' I was shocked! I remember back in my uni-days, the philosopher Kierkegaard describing not accepting our mortality as the 'ultimate denial', but I had never considered that an end to this life could be calculated using such a simplistic term as 'summer'.
Using 'summer' (one-per-year) to calculate that time seemed to add a finite element; as in ten summers = ten years.
For most of us, however, one summer seems considerably 'shorter' than one year.
Viewed in this way, the end could be closer than I had at-first thought.
So, rather than developing a death-denial strategy, I thought that I would confront the fact that there is a limit to the number of remaining summers for me.
And, given that most of us don't really know how many summers we have left, perhaps we should start making some plans.
When Agent 86, Max Smart, was asked by Kaos how he'd he's like to die, Max's answer was, 'Old age'.
That's probably the choice of most of us, but even allowing for such 'good luck', most of us don't know with any real accuracy when our number's up.
Pin-pointing an exit-date represents the ultimate paradox.
The mythical Tithonas and the immortal Struldbrugs in Gulliver's Travels reaffirm the point that immortality is not all it's cracked-up to be: no one would want to live forever.
Yet almost 2,000 years ago, Seneca told us that there isn't anyone who, given the chance, would not want to live an extra day.
Few people want to live for ever, but we won't say no to living an extra hour, day, or year.
Most of us agree, that the important thing is to make sure that any addition of years is matched by adding life to those years.
The issue becomes living a longer, better life.
In recent years, the term 'bucket list' has appeared, listing those things individuals hope to achieve before they exit this world.
And there's plenty of people wanting to tell us what should be on our lists.
There's also lists of books, food, wine, we should savor before it's time to up-stumps and call-it-a-day.
The size and content of those lists usually helps to support John Lennon's philosophising that, life's what happens to us when we're busy making other plans.
Two things we must do are:
Accepting our ageing and mortality are a part of fulfillment.
Give yourself a gift this holiday season.
Resolve to make the most of every summer.
In the words of Frank Sinatra, 'Once upon a time never comes again'.
Here's one that's likely to keep you entertained.
For most of us, 'Death' and 'Dying' are 'touchy' (taboo, even) subjects.
So, when a friend recently asked me this question: 'How many summers do you think you have left?' I was shocked! I remember back in my uni-days, the philosopher Kierkegaard describing not accepting our mortality as the 'ultimate denial', but I had never considered that an end to this life could be calculated using such a simplistic term as 'summer'.
Using 'summer' (one-per-year) to calculate that time seemed to add a finite element; as in ten summers = ten years.
For most of us, however, one summer seems considerably 'shorter' than one year.
Viewed in this way, the end could be closer than I had at-first thought.
So, rather than developing a death-denial strategy, I thought that I would confront the fact that there is a limit to the number of remaining summers for me.
And, given that most of us don't really know how many summers we have left, perhaps we should start making some plans.
When Agent 86, Max Smart, was asked by Kaos how he'd he's like to die, Max's answer was, 'Old age'.
That's probably the choice of most of us, but even allowing for such 'good luck', most of us don't know with any real accuracy when our number's up.
Pin-pointing an exit-date represents the ultimate paradox.
The mythical Tithonas and the immortal Struldbrugs in Gulliver's Travels reaffirm the point that immortality is not all it's cracked-up to be: no one would want to live forever.
Yet almost 2,000 years ago, Seneca told us that there isn't anyone who, given the chance, would not want to live an extra day.
Few people want to live for ever, but we won't say no to living an extra hour, day, or year.
Most of us agree, that the important thing is to make sure that any addition of years is matched by adding life to those years.
The issue becomes living a longer, better life.
In recent years, the term 'bucket list' has appeared, listing those things individuals hope to achieve before they exit this world.
And there's plenty of people wanting to tell us what should be on our lists.
There's also lists of books, food, wine, we should savor before it's time to up-stumps and call-it-a-day.
The size and content of those lists usually helps to support John Lennon's philosophising that, life's what happens to us when we're busy making other plans.
Two things we must do are:
- to stop denying that we're ageing and
- to stop denying that we're mortal.
Accepting our ageing and mortality are a part of fulfillment.
Give yourself a gift this holiday season.
Resolve to make the most of every summer.
In the words of Frank Sinatra, 'Once upon a time never comes again'.
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