When is your funeral? Bet you don’t give it much thought. And if you have given it thought, it was probably a long time ago. Either way, it’s something that most of us don’t dwell on. It’s a fleeting thought at best.
The same can also be said for our health, our mind, our spirit and our money. Most of these really important life-catagories are too difficult to think about. Why? Great question. My theory is that we get really busy with life. It was John Lennon (the Bealtes) who coined the phrase, “Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans”.
You see, as humans, we tend to avoid anything that is tough or uncomfortable. We also tend to stay away from stuff that other people stay away from – this is called conformity. The same can be said for being attracted to the things others are attracted to. Like careers, nice cars, nice clothes, titles, things, blah, blah, blah.
The truth that I’ve discovered, and it’s a blinding flash of the obvious, is this: We are all gonna die sometime. No one wants to think about it. Probably because we think it’s far off. Or that it will be painful and we want to avoid the pain and the painful thoughts. Or, preparing for death is hard to accept, difficult to plan for, and it’s just plain easier to pretend it doesn’t exist. We take comfort in our ignorance. And we all enjoy a nice dose of comfort, don’t we?
Hey, please don’t get me wrong. None of this is meant to make you feel guilty. It is what it is. Here’s the catch though, and everything has a catch, doesn’t it? And just so we’re clear on this, when I say catch, what I really mean is “truth”. There are truths in our life. We ain’t gonna live forever. Tell me this isn’t true and I’ll call you a liar. I’ll forgive you for your ignorance, yet you will still be a liar.
The beauty in accepting life’s truths, is that it gives each of us the gift to respond in advance.
The truth hurts.
The truth can set you free.
No matter how you slice it, it is what it is. And that’s a fact.
Ignoring the facts, doesn’t make them go away. Even though we lull ourselves into complacent compliance to the status quo. What we all need is a kick in the ass!
Seriously, if we don’t figure this out and fight this, we’ll all end up like the passengers on the spaceship in the recent Disney/Pixar animated feature, WALLE. Sorry if you haven’t seen this movie. It’s an apocalyptic tale of humans polluting Earth so badly they had to leave to survive – they become sedentary, and basically turn into human walruses.
Wow, look at the time! I need to stop now and go for a run. Later, dude!