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No One Lives Forever
The media are lamenting a woman’s tragic death from Covid. She was 105 years old.
“I think my mother would have been around quite a bit longer” had she not gotten sick with COVID, said Dorene. “She had a hard life and her attitude always was … basically, all Americans who were not around for World War II were basically spoiled brats.”
She added: “I’m reminding myself that she was 105. We always talk about … my grandmother and mother, the only thing that could kill them was a worldwide pandemic.”
The media are hyping this as a tragic Covid death to keep the fear alive. The thing is, at 105, you’ve already exceed the average life expectancy for a woman in the United States by 23 years.
It makes me wonder about the Covid Cult. Are the people who insisted in double-, triple-, quadruple-masking forever; the people who cheer for lockdowns; the people who declare that they will “never go back to normal” … do these people think they are going to somehow cheat death indefinitely?
Covid (a relatively minor pandemic) happened to strike a western world at the peak of its privilege and at the nadir of its spirituality. Whole generations have lived in their entire lives in material comfort and security. “Heaven is here on Earth,” people think, “And I never want to leave.”
This was manifest by the attitude of many under lockdown. “I can work from home and get my groceries delivered. There’s no reason to risk my precious life.” If you really believed going to work or getting groceries subjected you to mortal peril, you were perfectly fine forcing grocery workers and delivery people in mortal peril to preserve your own life.
But you have to, eventually. Whether you die at 75, 105, or when your molecules dissociate during the Heat Death of the Universe. You will die. (Full stop, as the pretentious say.) Life is only meaningful because it is finite.
Even if I could live indefinitely by confining myself to my house, wearing three masks at all times, I wouldn’t want to. What kind of life is that. And I got a pretty nice house.
I am more afraid of not living than I am of dying.
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Published in General
First, I don’t think we’ve reached the nadir yet.
Second, this pandemic has been a boon for the laptop class. Never having to leave home, ordering up whatever they want, staying in comfortable clothes all day long if they desire, meetings by Zoom (which makes it a lot easier to web-surf while you’re in a meeting).
For those who don’t have that kind of job — well, sucks to be you. You’re not “essential!” We’ll close you down. We’ll also keep your regular customers locked down, too. Also, we’ll fire you if you don’t submit to the jab. Besides, you probably voted for Trump.
Yeah, I can see why a certain class of people would like this to continue forever.
Liking both for the main point and the tie in to . . . Oingo Boingo!
Snort!
Okay, I’m sorry. I am involved in mankind, so any man’s death diminishes me. It’s too bad the bell tolled for this dear old lady.
But seriously? Did they seriously use the phrase “the only thing that could kill them was a worldwide pandemic?” And was she fighting back tears of laughter as she said it?
Regarding Oingo Boingo: that takes me back. For better or worse, I can still sing “Only a Lad” from memory….
If you’re GenX, you must listen to Oingo Boingo when October comes ’round.
I am more afraid of not living than I am of dying.
That says it very well. Thanks!
Who??
I under stand that Tennessee is pretty backward, but other than wearing a mask into some big box stores that required them, COVID hasn’t affected my life at all.
Is this even real?
I did elder care for years, and by age 95 or so, most people want out.
My great aunt didn’t want out, as at age 96 she was still getting on jet planes to attend fashion shows in the Bahamas. But she was gifted with extremely forgiving genes.
One of my closest friends died 4 years ago at the age of 93, and she had prayed to go for at least three years. Once your body is worn out, you begin to fear your mind will go too.
I find it hard to believe that any child of a 105 year old would actually expect them to continue living for a longer period of time. It is well accepted medical fact that once you are frail elderly, a flu or even a common cold can take the individual out.
“Life is only meaningful because it is finite. ” Very true.
Or as Lewis Black used to say “death is not a glitch but a feature.”
I just figure when it comes my turn, it’s not like God is singling me out.
If this is the only aspect of the (former) pandemic that the mainstream press has to lament, they got nothin’. The Babylon Bee couldn’t do much better.
Old age itself is a co-morbidity. My great-great – maybe one more “great” -grandfather lived to be 99. He caught pneumonia and died after riding in a convertible (I know, correlation is not proof of causation).
I read that article. What an asinine story. Hard to feel sorry for a woman blessed to live so long. The woman died because #1, she was old, #2 the family wisely CHOSE not to ventilate because she was old. # 3 she was old. People die.
My mom died in August at the age of 94. We put “died unexpectedly” in the obituary because she was killed in a car crash. She was still in full possession of her faculties, was still living by herself in the house where she and my dad raised a family of five kids. She was not in a hurry to go, but she knew time was limited. Most of her friends were dead or suffering from various stages of dementia (Ironically with the exception of one woman who is 102, but still sharp as a tack).
I hope this quote is either out of context or the result of a conversation with an over-exuberant reporter while Dorene was still in the early stages of grief/mourning.
Yes, I hoped my mom would be around for “quite a bit longer”. I thought she had a real shot at hitting 100. I certainly never dreamed she’d go in a car crash. But we’ve understood for years that she was on borrowed time.
I wouldn’t say mom “wanted” out, but she was certainly prepared and ready for it.
So, I’ve been seeing that iteration a lot lately, probably from @henryracette. So I got around to looking it up, and it comes from a poem by John Donne a 17th century poet and Anglican Priest. Looking him up, I found that he experienced personal tragedy, including 3 of his children dying before the age of 10, his wife dying in childbirth another child dying at 18, and it’s understandable why he wrote that poem.
But I don’t accept the premise that a stranger’s dying diminishes me. The bell tolls for me because I’m going to die some day. It’s a harbinger of the future. But diminished? Age will, but other people’s deaths? I think not.
And besides, if every death diminishes me, wouldn’t each birth extend, or exalt me?
From too much love of living,
From hope and fear set free,
We thank with brief thanksgiving
Whatever gods may be
That no life lives for ever;
That dead men rise up never;
That even the weariest river
Winds somewhere safe to sea.
How old is her daughter? 80?
Yes, this is the problem. People are choosing security over liberty because life is too danged comfortable.
One of the “faculties” that the elderly do not want to let go of is driving. I have witnessed horrendous fights between adult kids of a parent who clearly should not be driving, with proof of that being the serious car accident a week or so before Junior finally takes the car keys away.
If your mom was still able to drive, she had a lot going for her: including decent eyesight, good reflexes, and some mobility.
My condolences to you you that she died out on the road, but I’d rather go that way then in a hospital bed connected to machines for some days or weeks.
She just signed a three year lease on a new car in May. Before she did, my brother did a check drive with her to make sure she was still capable. She was well aware of her limitations – for example, for the last several years she wouldn’t drive after dark. I think she put about 7000 miles on her last three year lease car.
She got T-boned by a full size pickup as she was trying to make a left turn across a four-lane 50mph highway, pulling out of the grocery store parking lot at 12:30 in the afternoon. Her fault – the other driver wasn’t speeding, drunk, or on his phone (as far as we know), and fortunately wasn’t hurt. We assume she just didn’t see him coming, but I guess we’ll never really know.
I think this is the greatest concise description of the pandemic that I have ever seen! Five likes!
What, you don’t remember them? They were around at the time of Bow Wow Wow, The The, Mr. Mister, Chumbawamba, and Dananananakroyd. Basically household names.