Somebody needs to emphasize life's immutable truths to our newest younger generation. I will be 58 on my next birthday, a few days from now. Nine more years in which to live if the telomeres last on my cells.
Telomeres are small genetic fuses that determine how long a organism will reproduce fresh cells to keep the larger body going.
They are cleaved off as time flies by and once they are gone, you are doomed. My people last to 67 years on average, then they tend to wilt and make Helen Thomas look good, then we die.
Death is not the enemy, as I see it, it is the goal post. It is a reasonable finish line. Recalling the game of hide-n-seek, death is lurking in the shadows. Ready or not, here I come! My people have been blessed by quick deaths. My paternal grandfather fell over at work with a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm as a 67 yr old chain smoker of camel cigarettes when you could still buy them unfiltered. He was a product of the depression born in 1900, wanted to be a physician, but became a pharmacist to get out of college sooner and work to help out with his 5 younger siblings. He met and married my grandmother in 1926 and my father was born and given to her mother for the first 5 years of his life until their financial situation became more settled. His wife lived another 30 years. She is the only outlier. A longer telomere in other words.
My maternal grandfather, died in an automobile accident when he was 58. His people often made it to their 80's in relatively good health. His wife lasted another 13 yrs and checked out at age 71 after a large cerebral hemorrhage. Mother died in a tragic fire here in Cedar Grove and she was about 70. Father as you can read about in this work died when his heart was pierced by a carnival prop when he was 67. Anyway I am approaching ever nearer that dark line of no return with my next birthday.
I am not afraid of death, but do worry about its sting. For now my struggle goes on and I will try to lighten this up in case you are still reading.
Our crops here in West Tennessee have gotten another good rain and this may be the best growing season we have experienced here in the last 20 years. My corn crop is pollinating now and the rain really helps them along. I have stalks 12 ft tall in the bottom with 3 ft long ears. The cotton is blooming now and it has already had enough heat to make a good crop. My beans have been watered right along as well and are lush and healthy. Now if we can just get it out of the field this fall and the market holds, we will be able to help Obama, Boehner, and Reid lower the debt and carry the burdensome federal juggernaut for a fraction of a fraction of a millisecond!
This years crop and the weather has been a bright spot in my life, which aside from my high school football career, where I peaked too soon, has been a series of set backs and disappointments, with a sprinkling of melancholia and and a dash of dread thrown in for good measure, but hey, tomorrow, tomorrow is another day!
Where there is life, there is hope.
I hope your telomeres are long and your life is good. Even with all my problems I have enjoyed this journey in and out of hopelessness and despair, through the valley of fear and loathing, into sunny days and rainy nights, I plod on. Praying I will not sin today and I may help another in the quest for happiness.
Did I mention that I have a cotton picker? I am feeling better already. It is a model 9930, made by John Deere. Beautiful!
What does this newer generation need to know from me? Nothing, just live life and be fair to others, don't cheat, work hard, love your neighbor, not his goat, don't whistle past the graveyard, never put off today what can be done tomorrow, there is no such thing as a free lunch, a happy woman is worth it, have many children for they are our reason for being here. Pass some love onto the next generation. Spare the rod and spoil the child. It is not all about you, it is about us. Sleep, though necessary is overrated.
And finally, I did not make the rules, but I have to play the game just like you. And what a game it is. Be charitable. Money and property given to others comes back 10 fold. Keep it moving.
Game on!
Jackson Delano Maybolt, President Urban Poverty Law Center
"A song sung is worth three hummed." Mother Maybolt, 1926-2008
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