Green Bananas - 34

Morning Friend,

As the slate-stillness of pre-dawn gives way to a few sparkling beams of sunlight on this FINE Monday morning, I'm hopeful that you are lucky enough to be HALF as happy as I !

Now if you've read enough of these Musings than you know ALL about the "better life" I've found as a SOBER man with the Good Lord as my guide.

On such a beautiful morning after having given thanks through prayer and asked simply for the strength and wisdom to "stay the course for one more day", I'm reminded - as I was quite vividly over the weekend - that for some poor souls....they are very nearly...TOO LATE.

I'm speaking in particular about a fine old gentleman who's a "regular" at the bar where I enjoy shooting pool.

He's not a "close" friend; I've never called him up and don't even know his last name.

He's just one of those half-drunk guys you ALWAYS see in the bar... share a "howzitgoing" and a new joke with AND the invariable "still sober?....Good Man!".

He is, or WAS a tall strapping bloke with a quick wit and a taste for whiskey and cigarettes.

His taste for whiskey and cigarettes hasn't diminished, but in recent weeks I've noticed everything else about him has.

I'm not a doctor, and he's not one of those who tend to share their medical concerns with everyone in the neighborhood, but he is obviously losing physical, mental and spiritual ground. He is dying.

Yes I know WE ARE ALL DYING but the imminence of his end is more dramatically evident.

If you've ever had the terrible experience of witnessing someone's decline and ultimate demise, I've heard a Palliative Care doctor I know describe it as "circling the drain".

ALL of us begin our lives SLOWLY circling in the OUTER water, but as we get closer to the drain, ( older or more ill) the circling becomes faster and faster as we approach "death".

You'll often hear friends and family say in such circumstances, "But I saw him only a WEEK ago and he looked GOOD!?"

The man of whom I speak does NOT look "good" either.

Now my friend, there's "late" and then there's "TOO late".

-You can be a few minutes late for an appointment with a valid excuse.

-You can be late for work but make up for it by staying later.

-You can be a minute late in catching a bus but there's always another after it.

-You can be VERY late as I was in changing my ways and still salvage a worthwhile life.

But when it comes to your HEALTH, there is a specific physiological point where a deadly disease such as cancer takes up residence in the "breeding ground" which excessive drinking and smoking has turned your body into, and you find the slow spin of your circle toward the "drain" hastening.

At that point it is TOO LATE to do anything about it.

There's NO "excuses", valid or otherwise...another bus is NOT coming....and you certainly CANNOT "stay later" to make up for lost time.

The life you once measured in immeasurable hopes and dreams is a finite collage of snapshots of things and events you are likely seeing for the last time.

And while that "addition to the cottage" suddenly takes on a whole new IN-significance, everything else "long term" on your agenda, ( like giving up the "vices") is now off the map... RIGHT?

That's why they have a SMOKING ROOM, and a Doctor's protocol for ordering BOOZE for patients on Palliative Care wards.

Because it's too late...RIGHT?

Having had a "very' bordering on "too" late experience in my own life; I very nearly a poster boy for Liquid PlumR !?, I can honestly say that I'd trade ONE sober day for a thousand drunken ones, and if it happened to be my LAST one, then stay back in the calm water old friend and THROW ME A PADDLE!

My "happy" today is tempered with a prayer for all who suffer, and for my old friend that he might mercifully, before the circle becomes too breathlessly dizzying, find the strength to hurl the shackles of his demise HEADLONG into the maelstrom of fear, and let his last views of this beauteous world be through a vision of clarity...his last breaths be easy and sweet...the last beats of his heart be courageous and joyful... his soul rejoice in God's Peace....that it NOT be, TOO late.

love tImMy:/

Laugh as much as you breathe

Love as long as you live ( on green bananas)