Fragility and Morality

I opened my eyes this morning. The sun was shining through the window.

I have another day.

When young and invincible, these things go unnoticed. Our focus is on going shopping, having times with friends, taking care of children, making repairs and seeking a better life.

All the abuse we do to our bodies become cocktail party stories until it is not funny anymore.

We wander around in this little space suit called ‘skin’. It comes in several sizes and colors and stretches. Without a zipper it contains all the stuff that keeps us living. All the miles of tubes and pumps and wires that keep us breathing (even asleep) we carry around with us. All the entrails are the same and all the blood is red.

At the end of the day, our parts and pieces start breaking down with age. What was simple becomes difficult.

We are fragile creatures. When we bump into something, we get a bruise. When we forget where we put our keys is a joke, until it isn’t. When standing up takes assistance and sleep becomes an avoidance of reality our fragility shows our age.

In some cases the offspring will be more than happy to take over their parents lives (with or without their consent). Some times community organizations will volunteer to fill in the gaps that are no longer available.

Then there are those who wait for the grim reaper.

If one boards a plane that doesn’t reach its distention, one can only hope that they had gotten all their affairs in line. Wills, life insurance, financial and family arrangements are signed and sealed by lawyers and notary publics are agreed upon before they put you in a box.

While we don’t like to think about our mortality, no one gets out of here alive. No one wants to think about the coffin they will spend eternity in or what suit they prefer to wear or how they would like to comb their hair.

When the last breath is exhaled, it is someone else’s problem. After that we are caucuses just like the dead and dying on the battlefield. No one wants to think that our space suit is nothing more than a bag of leftover liquids decomposing.

Tomorrow if I open my eyes and the sun shines through the window, I get another day.

If not…