beneath the starry sky…

it’s been an age-old tendency to gaze at the stars above and ponder one’s insignificance and transience. so it’s no wonder that given the opportunity to gaze at them (there’s to much light pollution at home, and in any case there’s too many other things to do) i revert back to the old way of thinking.
i’m not one of the people that fears death, subconsciously but deliberately ignoring it on a daily basis. it’s there. it happens, and it will inevitably happen to me as well as to you. the question is what do you do with this piece of information. some people don’t get pets for their children because the pet will die sooner or later, and then the child will be heartbroken. but life is not about ignoring such things. people tend to focus only on that ultimate moment, and always associate it solely with grief – but isn’t that the moment when you close your account on earth – and the balance most likely is not in the red!
i wear a dog tag around my neck. there’s only one. it’s a piece of functional jewelry – it contains my emergency information. over the years i’ve been ridiculed for it, but it’s there to remind me of the fragility of my body, the limitations that exist in this world, and of the caution that should be exercised in order not to cut short my stay in it. it’s there as a celebration of life!
too many times have i been in situations where someone has had an accident, mainly involving slightly more challenging sports. us city-folk tend to look at nature as though it’s the neighborhood park – it’s grass and trees and perhaps a hill or two. caution into the wind! and the sea is actually a pool. it takes such a small step away from the narrow path or ski slope to make us see a whole different world. the question always arises whether you can take that same step back.
so as i sit beneath the starry, starry sky, contemplating the various aspects of the big bike trip that awaits me in one month, which ends in this same place, i feel the need to address the issue of mortality, and to celebrate life for what it is – the only great adventure that truly exists. and if i should happen not to make it back from this trip or the next, let the moment be in remembrance of the things that i did do, not that one thing that i didn’t.