Sharing the Gift

I have this awareness, but no plan for

anytime soon. I am prepared to face

the inevitable and let this so-called

folly of life go. It is a natural inclination

as one grows old.

I see the new faces growing up all

around me, and I’d like to pass along

some of what I know.

Do what you can with what you have

been given, and then share it with

others. A wise man once told me that.

The folly part he illustrated to me

most appropriately:

Seems that two Irish friends had

bought a fifth of Cullimore Dew,

a fine Irish whiskey. They agreed

to save it, and one day crack the

seal to properly celebrate their

lifelong friendship before they died.

And so the inevitable day came

as the last man stood over his

dear friend’s death bed. And

respectfully he whispered into

his ear: Methinks the time is

nigh that we be a sharin’ 

that lovely bottle of finely

aged whiskey. “But would you

be mindin’ terribly,” he asked

his old friend, “if I’d be passin’

it through me kidneys first?”

            -30-

Chris Hanch 7-20-21