My friend, John II, turned 70 last year. For most of us 70 is a big number but J-2 is and always has been in denial about himself. He had to be. He kinda thinks of himself as younger, smarter and better lookin’ than he is. Many of us do. Seems it’s a male thing. God bless his deluded little heart.

Anyway, in an exercise aimed at getting his head around that milestone he come up with a concept, a paradigm, a mental construct that allowed it to all fall into a nice perspective. Something a person could get their head around.

“Well, I am pretty spry for my age. My mind and body are good. I have good genes and a great attitude (deluded, like I said, but great). I’ll likely live well for another twenty years!”

When he told me this, I nodded. Agreeing. Kinda. I have learned not to listen too carefully to everything J2 says because he says so much. I have learned to filter. I listen for the ‘highlights’ as it were, and I hadn’t heard anything new yet so I just wasn’t paying much attention……

“But, you know, 20 years is a hard number to grasp for people. Years are long blobs of time. Know what I mean? So, I decided to think of this aging thing in a different way.”

(yawn)

“I started to think about all this approximately 35 weeks ago today. My birthday. And, at that time, I figured I had – NOT 20 years – but about 1000 weeks left to live. But, ya know what? (the question was rhetorical by this time but now I was listening)…….those 35 weeks represent 3.5% of my remaining life! Jeez, man, just thinking about my age used up 3.5% of it!”

He really had my attention now!

I started to do the math……….my family is particularly short-lived. It’s amazing I got this far. At 63, I am already the second longest lived on my mother’s side. 64 is the current record. If I gave myself 1000 weeks, that means I expect to be ‘spry, mentally and physically fit’ and have a good attitude for 20 years. And live to be 83! Hah! Not a chance. I’ve never had a good attitude! With my attitude, body and family shrub (not a tree, actually. Too short!), I am clearly doomed!

(This could be my last blog.)

Anyway, my situation notwithstanding, J2 had made a good point (long overdue, I must say) and he got me to thinking. Am I doing all that I want to do? How much time do I actually have to waste?

I’m still thinking of that but I have already abandoned being limited by social protocol, morality, law, finances and the possibility of huge embarrassment. (Well, OK, I have abandoned those constraints a few times in the past but this is different). I am thinking outside those boxes from now on! Time to get on with it!

And that is J2’s point, really. It isn’t about anything more profound than your own mortality but, face it, your own mortality is pretty bloody profound! And, if you think of it in terms of weeks instead of those nebulous blob-years, it makes one more present. J2 has made the concept of death more present.

What a guy!