There are many trusting souls that believe that because this year’s check-up showed no earth-shattering abnormalities, they are then fine for the next 12 months until the next check-up. Almost like getting a warranty on yourself. Ah, if only it were that simple.
Are you going to die? Undoubtedly yes (but hopefully not in the immediate future, so let’s enjoy Xmas). However, despite all the advances in medical science, the death rate will always be the same – one per person! Being born is, after all, the very first step in the dying process. One of the world’s great truisms – you are born, so that you can die. It’s the old death and taxes routine. You can’t escape the grim reaper or the Inland Revenue man.
Now, I fully realize that there are those of different faiths who are happy in their belief that there is an after-life, or reincarnation, or some other way by which they can do it all again, and I am not at cross purposes with that. I am merely talking about the ‘here and now’ – the next life can look after itself, in my book, but I don’t want an early morning wake-up call either!
I want you to ponder on the following: in our respective lives, there will be those of us who seem to fly though it all, the veritable ‘butterflies’ who flit from flower to flower, savoring, tasting and, need I say it, enjoying. Eventually, they run out of puff and quietly fold up their wings and pass on. On the other hand there are those of us who stumble like buffalos from one disaster to the next, one illness to another and eventually succumb – a victim of some tragedy. Almost as if it were written in the stars (but it isn’t).
Does the first group have a charmed life and the second are only living on borrowed time, or was it really written in the stars? Being personally of the ilk that does not believe in prophecy, until one of the seers or fortune tellers round the place predicts the winning lottery numbers for himself, I shall disregard the ‘prophecy’ concept. Those people who do believe in the itinerant gypsies with crystal balls, should stop for a moment and enquire as to whether the prophecies have made the fortune teller the fortune that should be well within their grasp. I can tell you the answer already!
However, let us look at the butterflies and the buffalos. As far as ‘borrowed time’ is concerned, both are in the same situation. Our lives are fleeting visits to planet earth, and that’s all. Like going on holidays, you try to make the most of your two weeks on the Costa Plenty, so also you should make the most of your next six months in Pattaya.
“Six months!” I hear you shout. “Is that all I’ve got?” In a way, yes.
You see, it is difficult to look ahead much further than that in the medical sense. So much can happen. Six months is enough time for a fulminating infection to carry you off, or to develop an aggressive cancer that will do the same.
So if we are looking at six months worth of future, how can we make it such that it is not this coming six months, but six months way in the future?
The answer is still a simple medical check-up. This will predict your future life for you, much better than the Indian fortune teller with a turban and a well thumbed set of Tarot cards. Advance notice of when the Bank of Life is going to foreclose comes from your medical records, not the soothsayers.
But what is the difference between the butterflies and the buffaloes? Nothing really. Both are on “borrowed” time. It is merely different attitudes to life and living. You can complain about only having a handful of rice, or be thankful that you’ve got something to eat, many do not. The butterflies have it right. They remain carefree and enjoy life, no-matter how short, while the buffalo carries the world on its shoulders to its grave. The choice is yours.
