Life…
Written By Stephen L. O'Connor, MD
Life…
Take a moment to be GRATEFUL
Life. I guess you might be wondering why I’m blogging about such an existential topic…LIFE? I’m really not sure why either! I think it had something to do with several seemingly incongruent and serendipitous events that happened to me this morning.
First, my “Daily Stoic,” from Ryan Holiday, page for today was titled: “Don’t Mind Me, I’m Only Dying Slowly.” Basically, it was from Marcus Aurelius and read, “ Let each thing you do, say or intend be like that of a dying person.” The subtext is that we are all dying (no one gets out of life alive) and as soon as we can really comprehend that idea, the sooner we can live life as if there is no tomorrow…to make every second that passes, count. This is a strange way to think about living by thinking about dying, but let me build on my point.
Second, I was sitting in my sauna and I finally watched the last episode of “Picard,” the Star Trek spinoff on the character Sir Patrick Stewart made popular. I had seen all but the last episode (I forgot there was one I hadn’t seen from last year). In the finale, Picard dies (don’t worry, he really doesn’t) and he meets with Commander Data, Brent Spinner, the sentient android who wants to be human, in a quantum dream (afterlife). Cmdr. Data died in an earlier episode, but cannot really be dead because his “information” is stored in a computer of sorts. Data asks Picard to do him a favor and unplug him from the computer so he can finally achieve his ultimate goal of becoming “human” by actually becoming mortal. Stay with me here…our mortality, according to Cmdr. Data, is what truly makes being human so special. By being mortal, it makes the love, joys, sorrow, hurts, laughs, and “life’s” experiences have true meaning. Commander Data cannot experience his dream of being human without dying.
Now, on a personal note, I received my COVID-19 results this morning, POSITIVE. Now, although I was confident that after all the training, supplementing, lifestyle transitions, and “oddball” health and wellness practices I live by would see my immune system through this contagion, I nonetheless might have had an outcome very different (as sadly experienced by the millions of COVID-19 deaths). This brush with mortality gave me a moment for pause (who knows when we will meet our end) — enough pause that I started to formulate this blog.
Finally, I was listening to a radio broadcast about the Physics of Cosmology, by Dr. Donald Lincoln. He was expounding on the idea that because our planet, when it cooled, quickly became hydrated with water — water being formed from two of the most common elements in the universe, hydrogen and oxygen. Now, in geologic time, life began VERY rapidly once water was formed (please, this isn’t meant to challenge anyones religion or beliefs about a divine Creator, but is simply a contemporaneous conversation in “MY” head). His contention is that there should be “LIFE” teaming out there in the Universe. Potentially billions of lifeforms; lifeforms possibly typing a blog on their computer about “LIFE!”
Addendum: As I was closing out my day today, I happened to see “Citizen Kane,” the 1941 classic. Again, as another twist or happenstance would occur, there was a quote from Mr. Bernstein, “Old age, it is the only disease that you don’t look forward to being cured of.” I think the Universe was telling me something…
Yes, it was an interesting day today for me…
Be well! Stay healthy! Tell someone you love and appreciate them, hold a flower to your nose and experience the fragrance, do a random act of kindness, or just close your eyes and give thanks to whomever you feel put you here. And, most of all, embrace what a wonderful gift you have…LIFE!