There is a wooden plaque sitting on the mantle of my fireplace in the family room. It is a large plaque, maybe three feet by one foot. It says in gold letters, "It's a Wonderful Life." I'm not sure how long it has been displayed but I know it is quite a few years.
This morning, I really looked at it a new, different light. A smile crossed my face and I said out loud, "Right on! IT IS INDEED A WONDERFUL LIFE."
Some might ask how I can feel this way with the myriad health problems I have endured in recent years. But, I am alive and many thought I wouldn't be. As the generic time clock moves inextricably onwards, my journey through life to death - that bridge without ramps - nears its end. We moderns have problems facing old age. Before modern medicine, if we hadn't died young of disease we just aged into oblivion without much help from the outside. We are led by natures hand down a gentle and virtually imperceptible slope, bit by bit - she rolls us into this wretched state and makes us familiar with it. We find no shock when youth dies in us ... in essence and in truth, that is a harder death than the complete death of a languishing life or the death of old age.
Languishing need not be the aged's lot.I choose not to "languish." Through all of the incursions to my health, I have recuperated and am living a meaningful live, enjoying reading, gardening, my electronic toys, (iPad, iPhone, Kindle, iPod.) My grandchildren think it's "cool" that Poppy has the fastest thumbs in the west for texting and that I have more friends on Facebook and more followers on Twitter than they do.)
Yes. I know very well that I have lived a long time. However, whatever time I have left, I will live it to its fullest. I want to leave exhausted. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE.
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