Jun. 23, 2002 - 22:20 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

In The Moment

After many years of reading newspapers and watching a limited amount of TV I have finally arrived at an opinion. No facts and figures to support it but what seems to me to be true.

Most any moment some force of nature is wreaking havoc on a population somewhere on earth. Pestilence,Earthquakes, fires, floods, droughts, changes of climate. Sometimes more than one of them at a time is occurring.

Then the decimating things that man does to his fellow man. Of course one of the most destructive is war. Effects produced by bigotry is another. Starvation and slavery take their toll too. Unwise use and harvesting, such as doing away with rain forests just for the financial reward of the sale of timber. Then there is our factory / industrial pollution which happens often. Pollution of our by many different means. Pollution of our water supply, even of the salt water oceans is becoming worse now.

Then there are the things unhealthy that are done by folks knowing that the, "The Piper Must Be Paid," yet hoping that payment will be deferred until sometime in the far future. Like me, going alcoholic -- fairly early on I had seen people in Delirium Tremens and had some of the facts of life told me then. Later it came to my attention that heavy drinking could be one of the factors in causing it and that anyone can become alcoholic at some point in time. There are some who are more likely to become afflicted, but one never knows the point at which casual drinking becomes alcoholism. When I started smoking at the age of eight, the only thing I knew about tobacco was that once the habit was established I couldn't quit. The other thing I heard was that it would, "Get your wind." Early on I probably could have quit, but being a puny, sickly child it was obvious to me that I would not be able to compete in sports and for me like with a lot of kids - smoking was the "macho" thing for a boy to do - and smoking without getting caught and disciplined for it added to its attractiveness. In many ways it seems that often a person will acquire a habit that causes an early terminal condition, eventually become aware of its dangers but through force of habit or stubborness not give it up. Animals of which humans fit the picture are all dying from the moment of conception if I want to look at it that way, but trying to stretch life out to the utmost, sometimes one can reach a fairly long lifespan, which I already have and am working on.

Two things occur to me in thinking. One is, a person stands a chance of reversing or halting the progress of disease caused by habit and extending their probable life span. Two is, a person's life can be immediately extinguished by any number of causes. Case in point is the 'near miss' by a space object of a size that if it had hit Earth an unknown mass of people would have been wiped out. Then there are people like those in Hiroshima who were wiped out in an instant. Three is that being one of the population of the USA the fact that "It Can Happen Here," has been emphasized as of 9/11/01

So the incentive to do good, be good and live carefully has finally come to my full attention. Yet, doing all that, there is the possibility that I can be put down the tubes by something not under my control is also known by me.

My obvious conclusion, is to enjoy every minute of life I have to the utmost. Each day, every day to, "Seize the day", thus living In The Moment . . . . . . .

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