DEATH AND I -- AND YOU TOO -- AND US ALL

Hey, don't let the title scare you.  We all practice how to do it every single night.  In fact the great oxymoronical question on earth is, "Did you sleep well?"  Huh?  How should I know?  I was out like a light.  Like ya know, I was out like a rock, dude.  Tell ya what, let me check it out tonight and if I remember anything tomorrow I'll beep, beep, blippity-blip you a quick text. Fair 'nuff, dude?
It's rather sure that I am not going to talk to you about my "deceasing" because I haven't done it yet, not for the eternal type stuff, anyway.  Not about yours either because you too are still around, if you're reading this anyway.  So this is our chance to talk about other people.  Especially people who are in absolutely no position to talk back.  Neat-O!
I and you all have noticed that when we get together we talk a lot about who is what age now.  Cousin Maggie wrote the other day and said that because she turned 71 in April she must be second after me, the eldest at 74 as of last March.  I looked it up.  I had to because Elna, the matriarchal guardian of all this valuable information, is no longer around to advise me about the order of birth of everyone we know as relatives.  No, Maggie, at 71 you are behind Denis Dion who was born in '39.  But, don't let that get you.  You could have done worse.  I can tell you that as far as I know, there has not been a person in the Eugene "Big Red" Dion/Ora Bachand family who ever reached 74.  One, that I know of, didn't get to 30. Sadly, it was not her fault.  Even I, who remember the event, do not know the entire story.  If I ever learn it, I'll tell you.  That is because the Dion family of which we are part had a way of keeping a lot of stuff to themselves.  Besides, at about 6 years old, who was going to tell me anything?  Then there is the father himself, the fiery Redhead who didn't make it to 40.  In his tracks, then, there are those, many, who never made it to 50.  There are a few who made it to the 60's, including Ora, but that was the ceiling for that generation.  Now, here we are, living in the shadow of that history.  Even the long lived Thibault and DeGray connections didn't do that much to stretch things out.  But it did help.  I'm going to try to list things down here.  I beg of you to help me if you see that I've missed the boat somewhere along the line.
Eugene Dion, the original Red Head, died at around 37
Cecile Gelinas, nee Dion was 25 -- She was my first experience with death and wakes, etc.  It '42 or '43, I think.
EFR Dion died at 47
Al Dion died at a younger age than that
Norma Dion was perhaps around 45 - 47
Grace DeGray, nee Dion was not yet 50, I don't think
Normand was over 50 but I doubt he made it to 60, maybe he did
Ed also was over 60, he was born before Don and died before Don
Don made it to somewhere in the mid 60's
That's the 8 of them.  I think that I had some wind of a still birth or two, but I am uncertain of that.
Many of these departures are of the here today, gone tomorrow  variety.  And it's not just Dion.  Thibaults and De Grays like that kind of escape.  Matter of fact, I sincerely pray every single day that God grant me that favor too.
Perhaps more than many families, we live our daily lives in the presence of the end.  I don't know how you all deal with this stark reality in our lives.  I personally have a way of looking at it with two eyes, the one making the other sure of the truth of what is seen.  Like the flowers of the fields and the birds of the air, the end of what we can touch and feel is sure to come.  That end though, in my life is the beginning of another, more glorious existence.  I am blessed in that I have no doubts about that.  I know that some are not so sure about what happens when you don't wake up the next morning.  I, for one am absolutely sure of what happens when you don't wake up the next morning -- You don't have to report to work, that's what.  That's enough to make a lot of people happy, isn't it?  Be honest now, how many of you go to bed saying, "Oh Lord, please wake me up so I can rush off to work tomorrow."???  Not me.  But I do go to bed with all kinds of plans to start work early because I have to get so much done every day.  But hey, like I said earlier, it could be that I'll never remember what happened anyway.  Maybe I get to the Pearly Gates and say, "Whoa, some retrofit they put on this place!"  Ol' Peter will say, "This is not that place...and by the way, what are you doing here?  It's too soon for you.  We're not done building the dog house yet."  So that's why I'm still here.  Heaven doesn't have a place for me yet.  Beelzebub doesn't want me because he hates my guts.  He's sure that I'm better at what he does than he is.  He's always after Lucifer not to pull the trigger yet because he's afraid to loose his job as number two coal stoker of the Inferno.  So, at this rate, all you 60 somethings out there, give it up.  As long as I keep getting up off the floor after falling out of bed in the morning, that job in Hell is mine.  At least for the time it's going to take Heaven to get a broom closet cleaned out for me.  
When that happens, you will not Cry at my Funeral because you'll know that I either got the place to stay in Heaven or the job I took away from Beelzbub.

SPIRITUALITY/THEOLOGY OF AGING ACCORDING TO PUTTSS

Oh boy!  The river of thoughts that hit me when I saw this.  It came with a string of other cartoons, not all of them equally as funny, of course.  This one got to me because I was in one of my more spiritual moments this morning. I'm always in the presence of God when I have to do Beelzebub's work by getting my stuff ready for the IRS.  It's such a struggle that I have to keep talking to God, Mary, my Guardian Angel and all the saints so that I don't go off the deep end, where ever that may be.  Anyway, then came this cartoon.  A wave of spiritual cacophony invaded me.  It was a spiritual cloud cloaking me but it was not calming.  It was not peaceful.  It was not truly loving, but I knew it was full of teaching and revelation.  The main lesson that seeped its way into my soul was that God Himself is in charge of the length of our lives.  I remembered Job saying that our days are numbered (chapter 14, verse 5).  I remember psalm 90, that beautiful poem about the human condition.  I remember Jesus' soliloquy in Mark 13 that ends with something like, " ... you don't know the hour, so stay awake".  I, myself have repeated myself numerous times across the blogosphere saying that our lives are not ours to keep. They are God's to use and to govern according to His needs and wants.  

The corollary to the first lesson was that as much as we think we know about ourselves and as much as we like to believe that we and God are one and that we somehow can be a divine cause of our personal well being, we can't.  We can't because we are not divine.  Not even close.  In truth, between the divine nature and the human nature there is a chasm of reality that cannot be bridged by us.  We are told in the Gospel that every hair of our head is counted.  That not a sparrow falls without God knowing it.  Just who do we think we are that we can cause divine things to happen in us?  Isn't the lengthening of life a divine exercise?  Maybe.  The Scripture says that our days are numbered.  Doesn't that mean that when we reach the number, our days end?  It would appear so.

So, then, why take care of ourselves if there is nothing we can do about the amount  of time we have here on earth?  We have  the obligation to care for ourselves because God needs us to do His work.  To do His work we have to be fit.  We have to keep ourselves as fit as possible by using the powers of nature and science to make it so.  It is sinful to abuse our bodies and the bodies of others.  To stay awake, as in Mark, is to stay fit for the greater glory of God.  Some are called to a longer number of days, some are called to a shorter one.  I spoke to a man today who at 87 seems to be about my age. (i.e., young!) No glasses, no hearing aid, no cane.  Clear and sharp voice and a spring in his step.  He said to me something that is music to my ears, "each day I just try to figure out what God wants and I try to give it to Him."  Then I came in and saw this cartoon.  

I know that you are out there saying, That Paul.  He is just so nuts!  It's just a cartoon for crying out loud.  Ya know what?  Yer right.  Even I have stopped drinking and a bunch of other stuff.  Not to live longer, I don't believe in that.  But like the old man said this morning, we have to live strongly for HIM.  For HIM we strive to stay well so that He can get His things done.  

That's what I believe.  Now that you know it, I'm glad that it took away any temptation you might have had to cry at my funeral.