Future Angst

I am very fortunate to be in relatively good health for my age.  In a few days, I will begin my seventy-fifth year on the planet.  I have all original parts minus one gall bladder.  My wife, on the other hand, had a hip replaced three weeks ago.  Taking care of her since then has given me a glimpse of what lies on the horizon for people my age.  Watching a once vibrant energetic woman hunched over a walker, grimacing as she tries to sit down or get into bed, has suddenly made me feel like an old man.  The guy in the mirror has aged significantly since earlier this summer. 

I have heard people say that age creeps up on you.  A sudden pain or an awkward fall can change one’s life in a heartbeat.   We avoid focusing on impending mortality until some episode brings it to the forefront.  Even if I live another ten years, much of that time could be spent alone in a nursing home or hospital.

Last month, we had a new roof put on our house.  I was interested in getting one of the new metal roof systems that look like conventional asphalt shingles.  They are durable and less likely to shed the little granules that tend to plug up my leaf guard gutter shields.  The downside is the cost, considerably higher than asphalt shingles.  I asked the salesman to price both types of roofing for the purpose of comparison.  The asphalt roof comes with a thirty-year warranty while the metal roof has a fifty-year warranty.

When it came time to deciding which way to go, I was set to choose the metal roof, but the salesman said, “Can I be honest with you?  Go with the asphalt shingle.  At your age, why spend the extra money for a fifty-year warranty?”  Ouch!  Of course, there could be reasons for doing so if the house will eventually be handed down to a family member, but that is no certainty.  I thought about it and agreed.  We now have a new asphalt shingle roof and a thirty-year warranty that will last until I am one hundred and five.

I have come to acknowledge my mortal existence.  While making plans for living is most desirable, we really need to prepare for dying.  Time passes so quickly and there is no going back.  Always be ready for that judgement day that may come unexpectedly.  

Speaking of an uncertain future, I watched the recent debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.  We are not talking Lincoln Douglas material here.  This was difficult to watch.  Who ever dreamed that a candidate in a presidential debate would bring up an unfounded rumor of Haitian immigrants eating dogs and cats in Springfield Ohio?  You can’t make this stuff up.  On second thought, I guess somebody did.  How incredulous can a person be!

Pope Francis said sometimes we have to choose the lesser of two evils when voting in an election.  As Americans, we should never have to choose between two people so completely unfit to lead our nation.  Both parties should be ashamed.  One of these two will likely be President of the United States for the next four years.

I have said this before, but my litmus test for a presidential candidate is his or her stance on respect for human life.  Harris is so completely pro-abortion that I could never vote for her.  Trump claims to be pro-life, but is also pro IVF which tells me he does not understand what true respect for life entails.  Unnaturally creating embryos, many of which will be frozen and never allowed to grow, is inconsistent with respecting life from conception to natural death.  

In elections like this one, I wish there were a way to cast a negative vote.  I may not want to vote for either candidate, yet I know which candidate is the lesser of two evils.  If I do not vote at all, I risk allowing the greater evil to prevail.  If I vote for the lesser evil, I am still voting for evil which violates my conscience.  By casting an anti-vote for the greater evil, my disapproving vote goes against the greater evil without violating my conscience.  Unfortunately, we don’t have that option.  

On election day, I often see people wearing those little stickers with the American flag that say, “I Voted!”  Similar looking stickers available on the internet say, “I Vomited”.  I may need to place an order!