Megabytes

This question was posed by Patrick Mathieu at his blog: The Power of Mortality. I took a moment to answer.

I’ve been reading some of Steven Levine’s book, “A Year To Live, How To Live This Year As If It Were Your Last“. Actually, I’ve stopped reading it because it is so intense and I needed a break. But the premise and the promise of the book is a deep understanding of one’s own mortality – a good thing to have.
Before I began reading this book, I would flippantly answer the question, “how long do you want to live?” with the answer “til I’m 100 years old“.
That’s still my answer, but now that I am approaching 50 (in a little over a year), I know that more importantly, I want to live well today. Live in good health as much as possible. Live with happiness as a choice. Mostly, live consciously.
So, my answer to your question “what is a good age to die?” - when you are ready.
My wife’s aunt and mother joined us on a trip to the beach in late September. Aunt T. had a fall 5 days after returning to her home. And she turned 84 years old. She had some recovery from the fall, then later was hospitalized with complications. She exercised power over her own life and asked that extreme measures not be taken to prolong her life. She said in a clear voice to the doctors and her grown children, “I’m ready.”
Her children and grandchildren gathered in her hospital room for a going away party. Chinese take-out was ordered and some wine shared. Two days later she died peacefully, surrounded by family.
In her case 84 is a good age to die. She was ready.
I wish that I am able to have that kind of conscious choice about my death and that I will be ready at whatever age I die.

The Roches were in town last night, playing the Aladdin Theatre. The Roches, if you don’t know, are a 3-sister folk-rock band whose members play guitar and piano and sing.
But that’s an oversimplified explanation – Yes, they sing. They sing in exquisite harmonies, blending and balancing the soprano, alto and baritone voices. You’ve heard nothing like them. They are unique.
I said they are a folk band, but that doesn’t adequately describe their comic and profound lyrics – comicly profound? They have an offbeat sense of humor with an undercurrent of politics, though no direct mention of politics was made.
They are probably a little older than me, but that’s another unknown.

“…We don’t give out our ages or our phone numbers.
Sometimes our voices give out,
but not our ages and our phone numbers.”

That lyric is from their introductory song, “We Are Maggie and Terre and Suzzy.” YouTube has scads of videos of The Roches, including that song performed at the Philadelphia Folk Festival, date unknown.

Maggie, Terre and Suzzy Roche have a deep understanding of harmony. They weave three notes together with the precision of a spaceship pilot through an asteroid field. At times, notes so unerringly close to one another as to convey pain and discontent. More times, notes in an open harmony demonstrating the three unique personalities of their wielders.
Check their website for their tour dates.

I have been changing the image in the masthead of this blog since April of this year. It began when a reader suggested I change the default image and make this blog reflect my personality.
Sounds like a rather innocuous suggestion. I went into my backyard and took a photo of our brilliant blue Dark Star Ceanothus. I cropped and adjusted the image, optimized it for the web, and uploaded it to the server.
But changing the masthead image meant adjusting the position and color of the <H1> and #headerimg .description styles. The <H1> tag is the blog title and the #headerimg .description class is assigned to the tagline that also appears in the masthead. With a clean-looking gradient background image, these items can be positioned anywhere. Once you change the background image to a photo, the positioning and color of items on top of said photo has to be adjusted to remain readable against the new background.
I loved the new masthead and thanked my friend for encouraging me in this pursuit. I liked it so much, I decided to make it a regular occurrence by changing the masthead image each month and having the image reflect the seasonal changes of the natural world.
You see, that’s part of my personality, too. Embracing Change and Being Different. I like to rearrange the furniture in my living areas and office periodically. It’s only natural to extend this change to my blog area. I know I’m not alone in my desire to be different and stand out. As Margaret Mead once said, “Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.”
So, each month, this opportunity comes my way that enables me, no, motivates me to change. November’s image is a close-up of some turning leaves representing the high point of Autumn.