Every hockey player knows that, sooner or later, he will suffer a very painful and possibly bloody injury.
Last night Taylor Pyatt of the Canucks took one (a puck) in the mouth. He had several stitches and according to reports his teeth were scattered about his oral cavity. A very painful and possibly disfiguring occurrence.
Every player knows that the chances of this or another kind of painful injury happening to them sometime in their careers is very very good. If Pyatt knew that, at some point in last night game, he was going to suffer this injury how would it have affected his game?
The chances of something really bad happening to each of us in our lives is really good. But since we don't know what those things are or when they might happen, most of us don't fret about it.
There is one certain thing that we all have to deal with. Our own death. We wonder how and when we will die. And more importantly, how we will react when the Grim Reaper comes for us. Will we even be aware of his presence?
At age 53 I am now approaching the autumn of my life. I know my days are numbered. I could have 20 to 40 years left.
The last 30 years have gone by so fast, it's amazing how really short a lifetime is.
If you knew when you were going to die would it make any difference? Most of us live our lives as if we were immortal. There is a small percentage of high achievers that seem to know that they have so little time as a human being that they make every moment count. They live life as if it were their last day on earth.
I envy them.
I thought it would be an interesting thing to predict my own time of death. I'm very healthy. I don't drink or smoke. Other than an occasional "enthusiastic" drive in My Mustang GT I don't partake in risky behaviour.
Counterbalancing that is the fact that both my parents died of disease very young, so the Genes are against me.
With that in mind I predict that I will die on: September 17, 2037. At that time I will be 83 years old. I have no particular reason for that date, it just came to mind.
Anything past that, well I will consider it Bonus.
So I have only 29 years to live. Yikes!
