Let’s call it the human guessing game. There comes a point in life when we find ourselves playing it whether we want to or not. Hallelujah for a sense of humor. It gives (temporary) relief from the unrelenting unknown . . . of dying.

Yeah, I said it, not abstractly or politically, but personally. It’s not simply that “people” are going to die, or “you” are going to die. I’m going to die. I don’t know when. I’m full of determination, just shy of age 79, to stay alive and functional, but doing so ain’t what it used to be. Ouch. Simply standing up now takes the sort of effort I once exerted walking a mile. Our Hero (as I call myself) is functionally ebbing.

Change is coming! The basic term for this change is “death.” – certainly one of the most avoided words in the language, at least when the discussion is personal. Some people fortify their reaction to that word by embracing a certainty – religious or secular – about what happens next. Others, myself included, essentially embrace “wait and see,” but nonetheless grasp for fragments of possibility that occasionally spurt out........

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