I am not a reader of the Obituary column. I find it hard to get excited about death! It has its place but I'd much rather focus on other things.
My brother David is an avid reader of it though. He pours over it searching for people he knew and keeps current with everything. If I want to know if someone has died, I just call him.
Every morning I sip coffee as I flip through the Savannah Morning News at The Breakfast Club. When I get to the Obituaries, Johnny O asks, "Anybody we know?" I glance at the photographs to see if I recognize anyone, which I never do, and he'll stand and take a quick look because he knows to not trust my review. As soon as he finishes, I flip it to the Sports page.
Recently I've begun to notice the Obituary pages when I turn past them. It's like driving past a car wreck on the side of the road and I have to glance even though I know I won't like anything about what I see.
What I quickly see in the death notices is the growing number of people dying who are younger than me. Sometimes it was cancer or "after a lengthy battle" that has led to the terminal breath. Most often however it merely says that he's passed away at 53 years of age.
I don't know about you but at 56, I think of myself as a 26 year old. Sarah will be the first to tell you that I act much younger.
The truth of the matter though is I still believe that most of my life is yet to come. Sure I've done a lot already, seen the world, loved and lost and somehow keep on ticking ... like a bomb! That was all fun and I enjoy talking about things I've done sometimes but I'm much more concerned about what's next.
Plus I refuse to grow up. "I believe if I refuse to grow old, I can stay young till I die," is how it's put in the marvelous Broadway musical Pippin. That's how I feel ... and act!
When I was a kid, we'd ride the roller coaster at Six Flags and I'd immediately scream, "Let's do it again!"
Now we're driving home from a trip to Central America and before we hit the drive way I say to Sarah, "Let's go to St. Martin!" She rolls her eyes and tells me she just wants to be home for a while. I like home. It's where I prefer to be when I'm not somewhere else.
I like that image.
Hell if I'm going to let death keep me down! I'm certainly not to give it any of me time while I'm still alive! There's just so much to see waiting in front of me ... and to do ... places to go ... love to make ... laughs to have ... and beauty to enjoy.
Whoever writes my Obituary will likely be forced to admit, "He did a lot but didn't seem to dwell on it. Just like always, just when we thought we knew what he was doing we learned ... he's outta here ... again."
Then they'll likely ask, "Anybody seen Sarah?"
