In today’s economy there are things you hear quite a bit from people just struggling to pay the bills and keep a roof over their heads.

“I can’t save for retirement – I will just have to work until I drop dead”

“When I get so old I can’t take care of myself anymore I just want to die and not be a bother to anyone”

“When I can’t wipe my ass anymore just pull the plug”

That’s not how it works.

The chances are very, very good that at some point – often sooner than you expect – you are going to get sick and not be able to work. Not sick enough to die – just too sick to work. Modern medicine, vaccinations, diet, sanitation mean that we live to be a lot older. Which also means more time between being able to support and care for ourselves and the actual shutdown of our bodies. We don’t get to just ‘decide’ to die – short of actual suicide – our bodies are designed to keep ticking away even when everything has gone straight to hell. They are really very well designed machines with multiple fail-over systems and redundancies.

#1 complaint of hospice patients who are actually IN the dying process is that it takes so darn long to die. And there is almost never a plug.

Fact is that just like when you came into the world, before you leave it someone is going to have to wipe your ass. So be kind.