Life is an exercise: September 2025

When I started this blog in 2007, I was 45 years old. The first post was about my unsuccessful attempt to run the Superior 100 Mile Ultra Marathon. Since then, it seems like a lifetime, yet it's only been 18 years. My son was 18, just starting College. Now he is 36 and fully independent and successful. He is now engaged.

In those 18 years, I posted so many ups and downs about training, races, health, and life. It went by so fast, but looking back, I've accomplished a great deal in 18 years. The most significant realization is that my mom is now 82, and Shelley's dad is 85, and they are unable to live life without significant assistance. I may be 18 years from that stage of life. I need to work hard to enjoy life before I reach that point.

Makes me think of Shelley's Aunt, who is near that point and decided next spring she will start voluntarily stopping eating or drinking. (VSED). VSED is when a mentally capable individual decides to control their own dying by making a conscious decision to refuse food and fluids of any kind, including artificial nutrition and hydration, to advance the time of their death. While it is a natural way of dying, someone engaging in VSED needs and deserves caregiving and support for adequate symptom management, comfort care, and emotional support. She has asked Shelley to be that person. This will be hard on Shelley, but she volunteered.

When thinking about life, I recall a short story that explains it. It goes like this:

God created the dog and said, "Bark all day, and I'll give you a lifespan of 20 years". The dog replied, "That's too long! How about 10 years?" and God agreed
Next, God created the monkey and said, "Do tricks and make people laugh for 20 years". The monkey replied 10 years is enough. God agreed!
Then God created the cow and said, "You must go into the field with the farmer every day, have calves, and give milk to support the farmer's family for 60 years". The cow said, "How about 20, and I'll give back the other 40. God agreed!
Then God created man and said, "Eat, Marry, and enjoy your life for this, I'll give you 20 years," but man said only 20 years! Could you give me the 40 the cow gave back, 10 years the monkey gave back, and 10 the dog gave back? That makes 80! God said OK, you asked for it!
So that is why, in our first 20 years, we eat, sleep, play, and enjoy ourselves. For the next 40 years, we slave to support ourselves and our family. For the next 10 years, we will do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last 10 years, we sit on the front porch and bark.

So, I'm supposedly in the last 20 and doing monkey tricks for young children!

Then my grandfather Bill's advice: Spend 30 years learning, 30 years applying your knowledge, and 30 years in retirement. He beat the odds, being just short of his 100th birthday. I am sure I will not make 90 years of age, but who knows? My iron deficiency anemia, which I have been fighting for 8 years, is not improving. I continue to have health issues related to this, including early heart failure. I will make the most of the time I have and enjoy it; that is all I can do

I will be spending my Birthday in North Carolina babysitting the granddog. I will also spend it with he worst cold I have encountered in decades! Very hard to sleep. Breathing through the right nostril is impossible! I hope it gets better, been six days now!