"We are all mortal"

Well, this morning I was a pall bearer in the funeral of my best childhood friend's mother (which made her kind of like my second mom) back in West Springfield, MA. My best friend's family is Catholic; I was brought up Protestant (Episcopal), so the liturgy and rituals were very familiar. My own beliefs have evolved, though, to the point where I'm convinced that all the going-on about the afterlife, the "better place" we go after we leave this Earth, to be reunited with our loved ones, etc., is ... well, for lack of a better term, a bunch of hooey. I believe "the afterlife", or "heaven", or whatever it's called, is a device we humans made up long long ago and that we perpetuate to this day (no pun intended!) for two purposes: 1) to distract us, give ourselves a mental "out" from the difficulty, pain, and suffering that are a part of living, and 2) to relieve our guilt at not striving to do and be our best each and every day here on this Earth, during this life. I think the 70's rock band Kansas was right when they sang:

"I close my eyes ... only for a moment, and the moment's gone ... it slips away ... and all your money won't another minute buy .... Dust in the wind ... all we are is dust in the wind ... "

That's kind of a hard concept to swallow, to accept that what we do here, now, during the one life we have, is all there is -- we'd all like a second chance, a "do-over" if you will, at a lot of things ... but we don't get one. We have to make the most of the one life we have, we have to strive to get it right -- do the right thing, be the "right" person, make the right choices for ourselves and those we love. Here, now ... not someday.

Over 40 years ago President John F. Kennedy said in a speech addressing the topic of nuclear weapons, "We all breathe the same air .... we all love our children ... and we are all mortal." I believe that if we can remember that, we have a much better chance of joining together to make the right choices with respect to our planet and the future we're creating for our children and grandchildren.