Morbid Thoughts: Zeroing In On Mortality

This year I came to learn about a new and faster way to die of cancer. No offense to the victims of this dreaded disease, but it definitely sparked a new sense of fear to anyone of us who could be diagnosed with this kind of disease.

About three months ago, I met a Filipina and she narrated to me how quickly she lost her husband in six weeks time to pancreatic cancer. Then about a month ago, I happen to look for a good book to give for Father’s day and bumped into one best seller “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausche who also passed away a month ago to pancreatic cancer. May his soul rest in peace.

On July 25, we celebrated our fiesta for our tiny city somewhere in the western hemisphere of the Mindanao islands, but sadly a good friend and neighbor of ours couldn’t make it after she lost her battle with the dreaded pancreatic cancer two days prior to the city celebration. Nobody knew how it all went but just last March she was full of life and vigor with no sign of an impending fatal ailment.

Death is certain but its timing is uncertain to any one of us. It could be sooner. It could be later. But we all have to face death at some point in our life. Its wrath will remain a mystery to us, until we come to our end.

How long do you want to live? You are probably hoping to say, “Forever.”

If you ask me, my answer will be, “All I want is to be able to live a fruitful life—short or long it doesn’t matter for as long as I’ve lived all of my life’s worth.”

I came from a small community in the western part of Mindanao. I loved growing up in the neighborhood where my home was. I know most of my neighbors because it is such a small community and everyone was always up someone’s nose.

Anyway, one thing that I love to do when I am geographically available which in other words would mean that I am not twenty thousand miles away from home, is to celebrate Christmas and New Year with my neighbors—young and old alike.

It’s one thing that I truly enjoy doing and sharing with the less fortunate people in our area. I am not rich but I am able to afford a few luxuries than most of them. That doesn’t imply though that I have a much better life than them. I still struggle just like any of them or any of you out there but probably in a much different level or dimension. I don’t consider myself any much better than the rest of them or you, thus, when I spend time back home I always reach out to those people like I used to, growing up in the same neighborhood.

If by chance you ask these people what they want to do for that time of the year, they would tell you that they look forward to spending the night away on the roadside, cheering , eating, dancing, playing with real people and having just pure clean fun for once. Of course, on top of that, they wish I would come home, because I’m like the honey that brings the ants together.

It is something that I treasure in my heart. The time I get to spend with these people are real special to me. Why?

These people are real and selfless.

Most of the people I know and met on the other part of the planet are of a different breed. Most of them are selfish, money-hungry, vain, and superficial and some of them even probably think that they are immortals.

Death is real and certain to every mortal being and that includes me and you and them.

Sadly, in this day and age, we don’t even get to stop and ponder on our mortality. We breeze through life the same way we zap frozen dinners in our microwave. We are too busy collecting every material stuff as if we would be able to create a hotspot once we are in our dead zone from six feet under. Mind you, it doesn’t even bother us that the only way for us to get a good night sleep is to take some sedatives or some sleeping pills. For some of us wasting away our life is okay for as long as our bank account is growing or for as long as we are able to surround ourselves with tangible things that spell our status symbol.

Listen people. If I have the money to live a comfortable life, I would, but I would stop awhile, and smell the roses, or probably attempt to count the stars in the sky or help a caterpillar morph its way to butterflyhood or just take the time to pick up a pebble and throw it into a pond and enjoy the ripples it creates.

The one thing though, that I would love to do, if I have the means is to help feed and educate the young and get other capable beings to do the same in their own little way. Then I would have lived my worth in life.

Most of the people that I used to know in the community where I grew up are either dead or dying. Some of them are younger than me.

Some of them just wilted quickly almost untimely in my own scheme of what is due and what is not. It’s a sad feeling to realize that the circle of people I used to know is not the same since some of them are no longer with us.

Well to me, life is all about the journey. If it was a wonderful trip all along then you probably will get to your destination, a happy soul.

Some of us though are misled and tried to concentrate on the material pot of gold that is promised at the end of the rainbow. Some people get to it fast, some people don’t get there, but for those who get there and find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it’s a lonely spot to be. After all, it is far more enjoyable to watch the rainbow from afar than get to its end.

Excuse the lengthy wordy metaphors, but what I am trying to impart in this blog is really about life and mortality. Since I have unnecessarily exhausted you with what I think life is all about now let’s tackle mortality. Yeah, we’re just getting started.

You think you’ll live a long life?

Factor in these things—nations are threatening each other with weapons of mass destruction; global warming is a growing issue; energy crises is a looming problem; the crime rate is growing at an irresolute pace; the ailing economy is bringing about all kinds of restless speculation; pollution is getting worse than ever; the food we eat is genetically modified beyond what is healthy and fit for human beings; new strains of viruses are breaking out which are highly resistant to drugs; your temper meter is constantly challenged; you make enemies on a daily basis and that’s the only thing constant in your social existence; you are over exposed to different electromagnetic fields brought about by all electronic gadgets that you collect; you constantly for no good reason need to miss some sleep just to be at par with your high-tech life; and yes, if you drive a car, factor that in to taking into consideration the fact that when you’re on the road you are surrounded by tons of metal moving at high and oftentimes reckless velocity. Do you smoke? Do you drink? Do you take drugs? Are you constantly surrounded by violence? Are you violent yourself? Do you suffer from any kind of abuse? Do you abuse someone? Are you harboring any ill wills against your neighbor? Does your gene carry some history of family disease? Are you sexually promiscuous? Are you an ego-maniac?

The answer is, some of us wouldn’t be so lucky to make it past today’s sundown.

The reality of life and death is that harsh. Immortal? Think again.