The Odometer of Life

I can always remember my Grandmother telling me, " Don't wish your life away." This would be in response to my incessant whining that Christmas would never come or school was going to last FOREVER. Ah, but youth is wasted on the young.

Two weeks from now I am taking a trip with some friends. I was thinking this morning - 2 weeks, Lord we do not leave for two weeks. That day will never get here. But upon reflection it dawned on me that  2 weeks is 14 days, as in 14 days of my life. And "Like sands through an hourglass, so are the days of our lives." After all, we are each only allotted so many days in the lottery of life.

If you can afford to cast 336 hours of your life into the wind, go right ahead. Be my guest. I can assure you there are few dead people out there who, when offered 14 more days, would decline and say, "No thanks. I'm just fine. After all it is only 14 days."

This makes about as much sense as the folks who watch the lottery and say it is never worth their money. Only when it reaches some ungodly amount, say 420 million dollars, are they willing to invest their dollar. When in reality the chance to win 10 or 20 million dollars (though their odds are the same) is not worth it to them. Trust me, I'd take Door No. 1 if Monty promised me there were several million dollars behind it. The hell with spinning a wheel for only a chance to win 420 million. But I digress.

Growing up is a bitch. We spend 20 years trying to grow up, 45 years dealing with the wraths of aging, until somewhere around 65 we finally realize time is moving way too fast and it is no time to worry about trivial things.

There are the southern women who take a "vacation" for a week or 2 and return not only looking rested, but years younger thanks to a nip here and tuck there, that one would never admit to. Excellence by Loreal can give some us the false sense that by keeping the gray at bay, we somehow are stopping the clock. But, alas Virginia, there may be a Santa Clause, but so far, no one has found the fountain of youth.

I have said live life in the moment. Well we should also live life day to day. My dear mother only lived to be 79 years old. According to my calculations (old math mind you) that is 28,835 days. Scary to think if I have been the dwelt the same ticket, and I manage to make it to that end, I am currently already registering 21,329 days old odometer. Those 14 days I was about to wish away could be .0018685% of my remaining days.

Of course, my mother's life was cut short by unforeseen consequences that in the perfect world could have been prevented. That said and math aside, time can neither be stopped nor reversed (despite the promises of Olay Regenerist serum). It is what it is. One never knows when one's ticket will be punched and it will all be over but the crying.

One of my all time favorite quotes came from HRH Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother:

"Wouldn’t it be terrible if you’d spent all your life doing everything you were supposed to do, didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, didn’t eat things, took lots of exercise, and suddenly, one day, you were run over by a big red bus and, as the wheels were crunching into you, you’d say, 'Oh my God, I could have got so drunk last night.' That’s the way you should live your life, as if tomorrow you’ll be run over by a big red bus."

She lived to be 101. And from all I have read she truly lived life for the moment and got the most mileage possible from her 36,865 days on Earth. No doubt her daily habits helped,  starting with a gin and Dubonnet at noon, red wine with lunch, a port and martini at 6 pm and two glasses of champagne at dinner. So live life as if you were dieing and beware of a big red bus.