This seems to be the week for reporting the deaths of celebrities.  Of course your grandma and Uncle Louie would not garner a smidge of the front page of any respectable newspaper.  It seems that charisma is the main ingredient of life that catches our attention and keeps it even until it is reported in the obituaries.  And that is the point of this essay.  Even when full of life there is a relentless pursuit of it in death.  The prisoner, who has languished for decades on death row, waits for the approach of death in the vain hope that his exemplary life behind bars will win him a reprieve so the sentence is death behind bars until nature takes its course.

The millions of needless deaths in war;  the millions of needless deaths in planned genocide; the millions of deaths due to bad planning and making death traps for people in places that should be left to nature and the millions of deaths where people have no respect and are allowed to perish in hunger and disease – these people are relentlessly pursued by death.  Lest we forget, you and I will not outrun or escape death when it comes.  The old Thornton Wilder story about death being trapped up in a tree while people racked with pain and sickness continue to live is a cautionary tale and it is true.  Yet our scientists are trying to prolong life beyond our poor bodies’ and minds’ ability to sustain it.  We keep alive monstrosities that would turn away those who see them and be a drain on families that hold on to the hope that these near-humans could somehow become better, more like you and me.  The newspapers are full of stories of people like the brain dead Terry Schiavo whose earlier death would be a blessing for her, her husband and her family – all of whom suffered in different ways.

Life is a gift and in the light of what I have just written, death could be considered a gift also.  But the one over-riding truth is that death pursues us in life and will eventually get to us in the end.  And that brings up the important questions about where does life originate (not the creation story) and where is that life after you die? None of us really knows but some hasten the end by living dangerously and others really do not live because they are unaware of what life offers.

I am pleased to announce two events that I am planning (I should live so long).  One is the joint 80^th birthday celebration that Carol and I are planning for March 2006.  Carol will be 80 on January 5^th while her child groom has to wait until next September 10 for his 80^th.  So we are celebrating midway in March with the help of our daughters who have arranged a trip for us to South Africa.

The next event is that I am planning for is my second bar mitzvah when I reach 83 – fifty years between events.  I should live so long!  Would you come?