Advise

I don’t care to outlive my father; he was eighty-nine

and not in a good frame of mind when he expired.

I wouldn’t wish to be old and lost in my shell with

dementia at eighty-seven like my aunt, Jo, either.

There are those who manage fairly well into their

nineties, I know, but that’s rare and not in the cards

for me. I drank a goodly portion of my healthy cells

into oblivion well into my fifties.

I still smoke. Cigarettes and I have had this life-long

pact since I was twelve-years old. Had I to do it all over

again, I might considered not engaging in the embittered

relationships to which I was attracted like a moth to fire.

As Robert Frost suggested, I did take the road less

traveled. However, given another shot, I may have

fared better following Yogi Berra’s sage advise in

taking the fork in the road when I got to it.

All in all, you know, considering this whole complex

life business anyway, it is still pretty amazing that I

have been able to string together this many usable

weeks in a row.

Chris Hanch  9-30-15