Be Careful With Your Phone Numbers

In Randy White’s book, Black Widow, one of the characters muses: Death has everyone’s number – but we don’t have to answer when the bastard dials. The Grim Reaper dials in a variety of ways.

- Playing “chicken” with hot rods on the drag strip

- Chugging a fifth of Jack Daniels to prove one’s manhood

- Alpine mountaineering without adequate knowledge or equipment

- Mainlining various substances to “get through the day”

- Tempting medical catastrophes with obesity (pass the chocolates please)

- and on and on . . .

In the five cases above – and the fifty others we could add – it’s a matter of choice. One chooses to drive one-hundred-and-thirty miles/hour on a city street. One chooses to poison the body with harmful chemical substances. Gluttony and/or poor eating habits is a choice. Base jumping is a choice. And the beat goes on.

Death can dial us up . . . if we give him our number . . . which we can choose not to do. Meaning, we can make healthy or unhealthy choices, prudent or imprudent choices, high-risk or safer choices.

Part and parcel of being alive is knowing someday we’ll transition to another form of existence. Our choices in life can either lengthen or shorten the time frame. This is a good reason to look at what I’m doing in my life.