{"id":4001,"date":"2012-08-20T00:14:55","date_gmt":"2012-08-20T07:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=4001"},"modified":"2012-08-20T07:37:07","modified_gmt":"2012-08-20T14:37:07","slug":"wind-again-and-our-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2012\/08\/20\/wind-again-and-our-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Wind Again, and Our Years"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Featured artist: Ambrogio Lorenzetti (deceased)<\/h6>\n

No man has power over the wind to contain it; so no one has power over the day of his death.*<\/strong><\/p>\n

I knew a guy who had two older brothers each of whom died without warning in his sleep. They figured it was hereditary. Whenever I’d greet my friend with a, \u201cHow are you?\u201d he’d just say, \u201cWell, I woke up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, we all woke up this morning, but for us it wasn’t so big a deal. Maybe it should be.<\/p>\n

In England once, I came across some sayings from\u00a0medieval\u00a0times which included, \u201cSleep is a little death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another: \u201cEach day is a god.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certainly my friend had cause to think this way. I couldn’t tell that he did; just working his job, driving his car, playing his guitar, looking for sex.<\/p>\n

Taking life too seriously, even when we know the end will eventually come, is just too serious.<\/p>\n

For me the term, middle age,<\/em> gets later all the time, the closer I get to it. Or have I long passed it?<\/p>\n

Moses said, The length of our days is 70 years, or 80 if we have the strength.**<\/strong> Who knows what his age was when he wrote that? He lived to be 120.<\/p>\n

If the 80 year life span was a 24 hour day starting at midnight, for me it’s already 9:00 p.m!!! How do I think about that? Pretty much like my friend above (except I haven’t even started learning guitar)!<\/p>\n

There’s so much to do. So much to read. I love history. But there’s something about all the people in history: They’re all dead!<\/p>\n

These days I find myself looking at birth years on the obituary pages. More and more I see my year.<\/p>\n

The World Bank has calculated that in the United States the average longevity creeps up every year and is now 78.2. We enjoy the world’s highest, but for Bermuda and Canada, both slightly higher.\u00a0I’m thinking that toward midnight I’ll move to Bermuda or Canada.<\/p>\n

Meantime, the best I can do is eat moderately, worry little, keep love alive, and stay out of the way of fast moving objects.<\/p>\n

It’s natural to hold onto life as long as we can. My mother at 93 still lives with my father of 95. She moves pretty slow; her eyes are dim, her pains deep. Still, at moments she keeps up her sense of humor with, \u201cWell, it’s better than the alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she will go, I don’t know. Nor, really, when I will. Or you.<\/p>\n

The answer, my friend, to quote Bob Dylan (singing Solomonically), is blowing in the wind.<\/p>\n

And none has power o’r the wind.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

_______________<\/p>\n

* \u00a0Ecclesiastes 8:8
\n**Psalm 90:10<\/p>\n

Next time, a break for some humor: Blog Spams<\/em>. Coming Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you woke up this morning, you’re off to another good start. What you don’t know is how many good starts are left.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4001"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4097,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001\/revisions\/4097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}