Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!”
— Hunter S. Thompson
With all due respect to Mr. Thompson, I have no desire to skid anywhere broadside. What about you? I wouldn’t mind thinking on my deathbed, “It was a good trip!” But the quote I like best is
I want to die young, as late as possible.
So my strategy is to treat my body with respect and give it what it needs to be healthy. No skidding in a cloud of smoke for me. What do you think?
I feel the same way.
I’ve always eaten accordingly to the info. of the day. Adelle Davis, the nutritionalist in the 60s, told us to eat lots of protein, meat, cheese & dairy AT LEAST once a day. Now it’s little of that & lots of fruits & vegetables. Which I do along with the exercise.
I hear the 90s are no fun for most people. I might be thinking ‘If I knew I was going to live this long, I wouldn’t have taken such good care of myself.’
bikehikebabe,
My guess is more people would be saying, “If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.”
I agree that the 90’s aren’t much fun for most people, but if you don’t take care of your body, or if you’re unlucky, the 70’s and 80’s aren’t much fun either.
Very good point Jean. We take care of our health so the 70’s & 80’s are fun. This is one place where we can have some control aside from heredity, air pollution…
I like my own control, in this world of uncontrollable chaos.
I’m with you. I understand that Mr Thompson arrived a deal early than he might have had he not ingested so much of so many diverse substances.
bikehikebabe,
I agree!
Evan,
Your comment inspired me to look the fellow up. With his attitude I’m not surprised he abused alcohol and illegal substances. And that he had health problems in his later life. He didn’t make it to his 70’s and 80’s…he committed suicide when he was 67. Not our style, is it? Doesn’t sound at all fun to me.
Jean, most men I know, and I, would LIKE to live all our lives like that. You know, like Ernst Hemingway, Bernard Shaw and the like, but simply do not have the courage to. We settle for the safe and the beaten track and near the end, look back and sigh. I think that is the emotion that Thompson is talking about. As for me, I have had some broadside skids in clouds of smoke, now feel thoroughly used up and somewhat worn out, and would like to end up without much suffering. If I can go to sleep one night and do not wake up the next morning, I would have achieved that last ambition.
Rummuser, don’t even think about not waking up. 🙁
YOU have many, many years ahead & you will be using them well.
There was a Japanese saying I heard some years ago and liked: “The life of the Samurai should be like the cherry blossom – glorious and short”.
Don’t know about the short part, but otherwise I am in full agreement with Hunter Thompson.
Rummuser,
I’m not a guy but I’ve certainly not followed the beaten track. To me life is too exciting to shorten it by abusing my body.
My mother felt like you do when she was your age. Six years later she met the love of her life and the following five years were the best she ever had.
Looney,
Has your life been glorious? If not, what would glorious have looked like?
Jean, I will give and arm and a leg to find a second love of my life at this stage of my life. If I do, I will skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, get thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaim “Wow! What a Ride!”, except that my significant other would also be whistling and shouting the same refrain with me. Now that makes for a grand scenario does it not?
Rummuser,
My mother found her love by going to senior centers that had dancing. Not a good option for you, but how about enlisting your siblings for help? After all, you are tied down with your and their father. These things sometimes take a bit of initiative. 🙂
Jean, yes I have had a glorious life. In 1990, I was working in Germany. They needed a day to celebrate their reunification which would be celebrated in perpetuity. I suggested October 3rd, because this was my daughters birthday. Amazingly, that is what they chose! 😉 What could be more glorious than that?
As for an example of going out in a cloud of smoke and a broadside skid, I will pass over Socrates and Seneca. All talk, no action. The greatest example was someone who grew up near where I was raised in Tennessee: Davy Crockett. His philosophical inquiries were clearly superior to the ancients: “Always be sure you are right, then go ahead”. Yet he went from the backwoods to being a famously problematic politician – even drawing the invective of Alexis de Tocqueville – and died in a blaze of gun fire while heroically and hopelessly fighting off the Mexican army from the Alamo. What could be a greater example?
Looney,
Your Davy Crockett story reminds me of the ending to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid. They too went out in a blaze of gunfire, fully expecting to escape once again. I still laugh every time I think of it. 😀
As far as I know Davy was all but forgotten until Walt Disney made him so popular. I can still remember what Fess Parker looked like in his coonskin cap and can mentally hear part of the Ballad of Davy Crocket. It helps to have a good PR person.
Just today I was at social gathering of new friends, and we got around to cruise ships and going on them and regaled of a trip my Mother took me on when I was about 7yrs old!
It wasn’t like the laid back cruises of today but rather Mother had to get all tarted up each even for dinner, whilst I was sent to the childrens sector for early dinner and then minding!
It was not for another decade that I would fly the coop on my own back to the same land we went all those years ago, Britain. I didn’t arrive back home for nearly a decade later but in that time I did a number of things – travel wise.
It was not until the early 90s that the next big change came when I was a single again and then for some reason health showered a long storm upon my head!
Early to mid 2000 I was somehow a bit better and skidded of for a spot of higher education of which I have just completed.
What next in my checkered life of experience…I do not know 🙂 but boy I’m having a lot of fun….
(I have decided to give up livejournal blog and try wordpress…hence new address attached)
Cathy,
That’s great that you’ve moved to WordPress! And you’re a kindred spirit, having a good time, trying a lot of things and sharing them. One doesn’t have to skid broadside in a cloud of smoke to experience life as a shared adventure. 😀
Cathy, I am delighted too.
Well it seems I have delighted a number of folks on this forum…I will endeavour to post a bit more.
this 1st day of August here, it’s bright and sunny. It was bright and sunny yesterday. The grave seems a long way in the distance but the journey is still unfolding – what will this week bring to me…
Cathy,
Yes, I for one look forward to your comments. Please keep them coming. You always have an attentive audience here. 😀
crikey Jean, that is a bit over the top!
I have been thinking about the grave a bit today since I made an appt to see my primary care doctor on Wednesday. Not to do with the doctor but to do with another patient of his, my sister
Who is turning 85 on Wednesday!
When I recently turned 60 she said I could say I was an elder but when I next phoned she said “you are not quite an elder but I will let you say you’ve a junior elder”
So the next week, I said when she answered “junior here” and she thought that maybe it was wrong number because many polynesians are called Junior!
Now I’m respectful and say Cathy and she is ok about that…we rarely see one another although she lives less than 5km from me. But we regularily chat on the phone for approx 45mins at a time about what we are up to. She isn’t upto to much but that’s ok…
Oh the link to “grave” before I forget – I hope I can live to be 85 myself in the future although by then she probably won’t be around…
Attentive and appreciative. 🙂
Lucky those of us who have a choice: And Hunter Thompson’s choice was to end his life by his own hand – as he saw fit. I have nothing but respect for people who have the courage to take the short cut. Standing by their convictions.
U
Cathy,
I’m glad you have your sister to chat with. A lot of people don’t like long phone calls, but I think they’re a great way of keeping in touch.
That’s quite a difference in age!
The average age of death for my parents and grandparents was 76. I think there’s a good chance I’ll live longer than that, but I don’t particularly worry about it. I don’t care about longevity as much as quality of life.
Ursula,
I agree with Hunter on that one…I’ve always wanted suicide as an option. That’s why I’m a member of Compassion and Choices.
Blowing my brains out has never appealed to me…I hate loud noises. Apparently he did it while talking on the phone with his wife. His grandson and daughter-in-law were in the next room when it happened, but they thought a book had dropped until they went to check on him a few minutes later.
No, guns and all the gore are not my thing either. Apparently it’s mostly men who will choose the shooter or the rope. I suppose men like to play it safe and make sure the outcome is the desired one. Whilst women tend to take the gentler route of pills, poison and water, with a faint chance of being rescued.
Ever considerate, my main worry about committing suicide, which I can’t imagine I ever will but who knows, is the mess – both physically and, of course, emotionally – you will leave behind. So no brains splattered all over the walls, please. As to the emotional fall-out: That we’ll just have to live with.
Didn’t I mention recently that when committing suicide the only permissible way (if you have any compassion for those you leave behind) is to do it so surreptitiously that no one realises that that “accident” was well planned. Naturally, no sooner had I uttered the notion, I had plead with everyone that should I be hit by a truck, the No 13 bus or fall off a bridge any time soon it will NOT have been intentionally. That’s the trouble, Jean: You open your mouth and will find yourself in dire straits.
U
Jean, I’m the youngest and she is the oldest in a small family of 4 siblings (the middle ones are both d’cd). Fortunately, she has never been a Mother-figure to me other than when I was born. She was qualified nurse who had taken an add-on baby care course and Mum was not all that well (I was a change of life baby) so Sis came home to look after me etc…
U: a few months ago the whole western train line was disrupted at about 7am one morning when I man leapt off a bridge in front of a moving train and committing suicide…it was a bad time for all concerned…I heard through the grapevine that his family was in dire straits and he thought it would best to leave them – how sad…
Cathy,
I agree that it was sad. Apparently Irvine Berlin left his family for years. His family was poor and his father had died and he felt he wasn’t earning enough to be carrying his own weight. Fortunately he did well and was able to reconnect and help his mother a lot later on.