IT’S TIME TO GET IT RIGHT!

                           “IT’S TIME TO GET IT RIGHT!” 

Life at best is unpredictable. The wondrous  life we have each been

Blessed  with is not guaranteed. We have no guarantees as to the length of

our life,  and yet some people live so long that it boggles the mind. I say:

 isn’t it time that we each stop fooling with life, and finally get it right? 

Edna Parker was born in 1893 and died in 2008. She lived to

the ripe old age of 115 years and 220 days. For some time Edna was

considered the oldest person in the world. She attended college, became

a teacher, lived on a farm, had two sons. She loved to read; she enjoyed

poetry and recited poetry to her visitors.

As of September 2009, there were twenty-three people who were

validated to have lived to the age of 115. Amazing! There are certain

genes that contribute to longevity, no doubt. But there are also thought

patterns that, I believe, shave many a year off someone’s life. Imagine if

we could only perfect the “special formula”!

To live to age 115, someone would have to live over 42,000 days.

Amazing! Can you imagine that? The number of people over age 100 in

the U.S. today is more than 84,000. By the year 2040 it is estimated that

number will grow to 580,000. My suggestion: Watch what you allow to

seep into that computer-mind that so skillfully runs the manufacturing

plant we call our bodies.

Sarah Knauss lived to be 119 years and 97 days old. She lived her

entire life in Pennsylvania. She was a homemaker, worked in an insurance

office, and was healthy most of her life. Her daughter explained her

mother’s longevity this way: “She’s a very tranquil person, and nothing

fazes her. That’s why she’s living this long.” Her daughter lived to the age

of 101 herself.

What Will We Be Remembered For?

Life is no brief candle for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I

have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as

possible before handing it on to future generations.

—George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Playwright, political activist

There is a story of one man who suddenly worried what his obituary

would say about his life after he passed away.

One day, Alfred B. Nobel’s brother passed away, but a newspaper

inadvertently ran the obituary all about Alfred, the surviving brother.

Alfred was horrified after reading what his own obituary would say about

him if he died that very day. You see, Alfred B. Nobel was a well-known

Swedish munitions manufacturer, known as a man who invented the

means to kill more people with his dynamite explosives than anyone else

in history had done. Nobel made up his mind at that moment to change

how he would one day be remembered.

Alfred B. Nobel did change how the world would remember him,

by creating the world’s most famous set of awards, known as the Nobel

Prizes. Since 1901, the Nobel awards have been presented yearly for

outstanding achievements in literature, peace, economics, medicine,

and the sciences. When Alfred Nobel died, he left behind a fund and

specific instructions in his will as to how to carry on with the prizes each

year. What a legacy! In 2009, President Barack H. Obama was awarded

the Nobel Prize for Peace.

While writing this section, I thought about how my obituary would

possibly read, and honestly I was not satisfied. What a wake-up call.

I have so much more to accomplish. It’s great to be shocked back to

reality every so often.

When you remember me, it means that you have carried something of

who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are.

It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless

years and miles may stand between us. It means that if we meet again, you

will know me. It means that even after I die, you can still see my face and

hear my voice and speak to me in your heart.

For as long as you remember me, I am never entirely lost. When I’m

feeling most ghost-like, it is your remembering me that helps remind me that

I actually exist. When I’m feeling sad, it’s my consolation. When I’m feeling

happy, it’s part of why I feel that way.

—Frederick Buechner

C- 2011 John Paul Carinci