Mystery of Life

Do you think it makes a person morbidly curious if they often examine death? I'm not talking about watching YouTube videos about how to prepare a dead body, I'm talking the how's and whys of the way we exist in this life and how we remain human within it. I am a Christian, I believe in the father, his son Jesus Christ, and their grand plan for our souls. The place it slides off in the ditch for me is how one minute we are here, flesh and blood, a breathing soul full of life and in the time, it takes to spit we can be gone like the red dust in the Oklahoma wind. And to be sure unless there is a head stone with our names etched on them nobody excluding our loved ones will ever even know we existed. It seems that our time on this big blue ball we call earth is as brief as the life of a house fly. The breath of life can be sucked from our bodies in the blink of an eye and often times it is. Hopefully it will be as peaceful as just drifting off to sleep but that is anyone's guess. Which only leaves us with the question of what's the purpose of our lives between the cradle and the grave. To be sure, the main thrust should be the care of others, but first you must learn to care for yourself.

I believe it is the mystery of life that often times sustains me. My granny always told me "Life is a trip, the trip starts the minute you are smacked on the fanny by the doctor, the trip ends with our demise. So, you see, our death is just the end of the trip." As a kid grandma had a way of helping me understand and sometimes even being comforted by the things I had originally feared. How is it that a sweet little farm gal from south-central Kansas could have had such a firm grip on reality? I suppose the answer to that question is she had time to ponder. Never belittle the idea of taking the time to sit in the shade of a mulberry tree and ponder life's little mysteries. Solitude can often serve as an equalizer in making peace with the things we wrestle with. Some people think therapy is the way to go, but I have a problem paying a stranger $200 an hour to listen to my problems when the family dog will do that for free. Those "doctors" only take the time to ask questions like "how did that make you feel" just to fill the time and to keep themselves from nodding off to sleep. If that stance makes me a pessimist, so be it, I've been called worse. But hey, if you think therapy is the way to get those things solved go for it, I am a lot of things, but I am no hater.

My dad loved to say that the meaning of life was the pursuit of the meaning of life, that is perplexing, humorous, and at the same time true. I do it, and I am certain you have too. This is a bit like a snake who attempts to eat his own tail in that it is a task that is perplexing, unrealistic, and never complete. In the many hours I have spent contemplating life I can tell you the best I can come up with is to make it count. This sounds like an old cliche' and to some degree it is, but it's absolutely true. When you are provided a sunny day on the back porch with a cold lemonade and the trees are full of songbirds, don't just brush it off as just another day, relish the moment. When your kids are walking down the aisle and getting married, baptized, or graduating take time to soak it in. I can't even assure you that we will be able to take those memories with you, but at least we can have them while we are still vertical.

In the end I suppose the best we can hope for is that a few people will step forward and say something nice about us. They might talk about the time we went out of our way to help a friend; we might have even been that friend. Just make sure if you are the one running the proceedings you don't misgauge, ask people to join a rousing chorus of "he was a great guy" only to hear crickets. Trust me when I tell you it's awkward, I've seen it happen firsthand and it's painful to watch. And while deeds are nice, the thing they are most likely to remember is how we made others feel. I had an uncle on my mom's side growing up that had the ability to make every person in the room feel as though they were the most important one there. Some folks might say that made him a bit of a snake oil salesman, but you must admit it's also a gift. But truly, when was the last time you needed to oil a snake? Granted it is a bit twisted, but it is a gift, nonetheless.