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No matter how hard we try, we cannot make our bodies last past their due dates.

Nope.

That’s one ball that starts rolling and that stops its journey definitely and definitively!
WE cannot stop it.

We wear out.

So no matter how many creams we slather on our wrinkling skin, despite our most expensive serum injections, facelifts, vitamin B shots and pig placentas we force into various bare-bone parts of our skeletons, there’s just a point at which , no matter who you are, you simply run out of time and life force.

I mean, is there anything we’d rather do with our bodies than force them to last forever and ever and ever?

Somehow we have gotten it into our heads, our poor , unimaginative meager heads (remember they are part of that inevitably failing body of ours…imperfect at best) that to live forever, in a state of relative health and wholeness, is something to be desired…something to strive for…something to pray for. It’s either that, or facing the ultimate Unknown, wherein our bodies turn to dust and bugs eat away at us….or flames burn us to ash. Yuck, either way…..or so we think…..so we fear….so we morbidly imagine.

BUT, I am here this morning stating definitively that I am not in agreement with that notion…that to live forever in our current physical bodies is something to strive for…..I just do not buy it! I mean, let’s face it: even the most wonderful piece of glamorous clothing in our closets wears out, and we inevitably lose interest in that piece of clothing and spend hours (and fortunes) looking for new glad rags to lighten our souls.

Fashions change, and so, I maintain, so should our bodies.

We humans require variety, change and improvement…and if our physical body insists on decaying as it does, why in the world would we want to keep it hanging around in our Life Closet, becoming dreadfully drab and unwanted on the hanger we drape it on? Step up and be brave….i remember when I was in college and miniskirts came into our world! I took my best gay pal Ron with me to pick out my very first one, because i was terrified of what people would think if i suddenly showed up on campus with my knees showing! My ugly fat knees…..were anyone’s knees anywhere near skinny enough to pass approval in those days? Twiggy was our exemplar, and there was no way my knees would ever be as charmingly bony as hers…not ever…but I bought that cow hide pattern, black and white mini dress, and felt the thrill…the shock of wind on the back of my legs, and I loved every moment of my brave life….i was determined to experience the new…and i was young and fearless enough to do so! With the approval of my best gay friend by my side.

And so, as I approach my death….i am after all in my late 70’s…i wish to maintain that youthful awe and excitement as I change from this physical body to my next…..and yes, the winds of mortality may feel chilly against my aged skin, but if I can withstand Chicago in the wintertime, winds blowing snow across the Northwestern campus, then I can manage when the winds of mortality sweep me into my next grand adventure.

I CAN do what I want with my body….and I WANT to enjoy it even as it disappears…and I fully intend to do so…..with enough modern drugs, I think I can accomplish even that.