I heard a phrase many years ago, I don’t remember the source or the exact wording so this is not exactly a quote.  Death walks in front of you, so slow down you don’t want to catch up.

I think the more common view is death is stalking us from behind.  The opposite of this, the idea of slowing down so you don’t catch death is intriguing to me.

Contemplation

As with so many of my posts, events of the day often become the topic.  I just found out that one of my closest university friends (and my wifes roommate) died.

She was my age and of course this can bring thoughts of my own mortality.  We were not close in recent years but I did know her well.  This led me to the opening quote.

Death and Taxes

I just completed my annual tax return yesterday so there is an interesting symetry to the two events, death and taxes, being the things often stated as inevitable.

Of course change is probably the most truly inevitable occurance in everyones life and death does fall into that category.  It is a very significant change.

A Life Enjoyed

Not catching up with death is not intended to imply avoidence but rather it is about focus.  Enjoy each moment, don’t rush, there will, at some unknown point, be an ending.

It just is.  You can’t stop it, so little point in chasing it down.  A line from one of my favorite Black Sabbath songs can be perverted to express this sentiment.

Enjoy, don’t waste your life “Killing yourself to live”.