Mortality

About 5 years or so ago it hit me that I was going to die. Yes, we all know we're going to die. But, for most of our lives it's an abstract concept. Unreal. For most of our lives we think death is way off in the unforeseeable future. But, that day, 5 years ago, it hit me that I was going to die, and it was real, and it would come at a time of it's reckoning, not mine.

At the time, I was at the cusp of young and old. Perhaps it's the milestone of young and old; the acknowledgment of the inevitable. The inevitable is always there, but our acknowledgment of it is incremental. As the clock ticks, the weight of it descends. We dance beneath it; at first oblivious, then defiant, then negotiating. First, we offer up our vices, as sacrifice, for time. Then our diet.