On Being Mortal

Mortality. Now that is a word that even the mathmeticians have not tried to change the meaning of.

I don't know about you. But my first day in calculus I knew I was going to have BIG issues. When the professor opened up with "learning how to place a limit on infinity" - I knew was in the wrong class.

I thought to myself, 'Hey Lady, do you know the meaning of the word?" The whole point of the word is that it is limitless. I bet you can guess that my career as a mathemetician was doomed from that point forward. I did manage to scrape through the class, but it never really set well with me. All I can say is "Thank the Gods" that the final exam was worth so much and that it was an essay question.

Any way to get back on point, it seems that we spend much of our lives not really understanding this word mortal or mortality. We hear it, but we don't get it. I know I never really even came close until I dealt with my Father passing away.

Growing up, I was always told that he would always be there for me. And looking back, there was never a time that he wasn't there. He was there when I needed a friend. There when I needed a little doctoring. And definitely there when I needed a good slap-up-side the head. Yes, he was always there for me. So when he told me he had the big "C", it never really occurred to me that he could DIE. You see for me, he was IMMORTAL. He was my DAD. I had never, ever thought about the day when he might not physically be here on the planet.

I wonder now how many times I have told my boys that I will always be there for them - and what they may face when they discover that not only am I not perfect (though perhaps they know this already) - I am infact also mortal.

Perhaps our mathmeticians would have served us all much better had they found a means of removing the limits set by the concept of mortality rather than giving us a way to limit the infinite. But I suppose we already have world-wide hunger so that would just set another wheel in motion.

I suppose what we learn from the word alone is that now truly is the time to live. Not in the frenetic ways of the young (though that indeed was fun), but with the wisdom of knowing that life is worth living well. With good people, good intentions and in balance. Work to live, live to love and laugh and avoid the complications of words like legacy, etc.

I guess being mortal is fine. As long as my spirit remains infinitely open to the abundance around me, who needs forever?