I have been a nosy and curious person since childhood. My wife calls me the why man. I even want to know such absurd things such as, why the sun, a mighty furnace, doesn't run out of fuel after billions of years of burning?
My body has gotten old, but my brain still appears to be functioning as well as ever (That's not saying much). Due to my curiosity and nosiness, I have become an unofficial student of various aspects of God's creation, including space, the cosmos, the human body, health maintenance, the life process, and more.
Because of my tender age, I have become a student of aging and the aging process (and the subject of death). One of life's great surprises is that one day you are a young person, and suddenly, or so it seems, you realize you are old. How did that happen? Surprise, surprise! Old people discuss death a lot. Is it morbid? Not at all.
The end of one's life is a significant and fascinating topic. The 90th Psalm states that 70 years is the lifespan of man (and 80 if you're lucky). For some unknown reason, I have been permitted to live way beyond those points. Old people discuss death often because they know the end is near and getting closer every day.
Here are a few things I have discovered for myself. If you don't get run over by an 18-wheeler on the freeway, death is a very slow and gradual process. Your hair turns white, your vision dims, your hearing fades, your body loses strength and muscle mass, your teeth fall out, your bladder shrinks, and my doctor told me the brain shrinks too. So if you live a long life, you can pretty well see and feel when it's time to go. So you talk about it.
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My body has gotten old, but my brain still appears to be functioning as well as ever (That's not saying much). Due to my curiosity and nosiness, I have become an unofficial student of various aspects of God's creation, including space, the cosmos, the human body, health maintenance, the life process, and more.
Because of my tender age, I have become a student of aging and the aging process (and the subject of death). One of life's great surprises is that one day you are a young person, and suddenly, or so it seems, you realize you are old. How did that happen? Surprise, surprise! Old people discuss death a lot. Is it morbid? Not at all.
The end of one's life is a significant and fascinating topic. The 90th Psalm states that 70 years is the lifespan of man (and 80 if you're lucky). For some unknown reason, I have been permitted to live way beyond those points. Old people discuss death often because they know the end is near and getting closer every day.
Here are a few things I have discovered for myself. If you don't get run over by an 18-wheeler on the freeway, death is a very slow and gradual process. Your hair turns white, your vision dims, your hearing fades, your body loses strength and muscle mass, your teeth fall out, your bladder shrinks, and my doctor told me the brain shrinks too. So if you live a long life, you can pretty well see and feel when it's time to go. So you talk about it.
Continued on next page...
