The Paradox of Life
Life comes and goes and changes with the seasons. We live. We die. We make changes. We stay the same. But still it goes on and on. An endless circle.
Sometimes we die slowly. We get a disease. We get old. Our bodies deteriorate and wither away.
Sometimes it is over in a split-second. A car comes from nowhere. A gun shot. An accident.
We can never know how it will happen. We can only try to live our lives as if the next moment will be the last, for what good is it to live life carefully? What do we gain? Maybe a few more days or years or hours. Maybe not. In the end, we will all die, one way or another.
I'm not sure which is easier. Having to watch a loved one suffer pain, but being able to say goodbye one last time. Or knowing that it was over quickly and they didn't suffer, but no chance to say farewell.
I guess the lesson here is that we should always say goodbye in a way that we will not regret if it is indeed the last goodbye. I will do that with my father every time I leave him because I don't know when the end will come, just that it will.
Other people that I have loved or cared about, I have not had the chance to say that one last goodbye. For one of them, I have to say it here.
Goodbye, Rick. You were a good man. You will be missed.
Rick Felix 1946 - 2003
