New Year’s Resolution? Live Longer!
—Sometimes we gotta do what we might not wanna do!
Acclaimed Boston Globe music writer Steve Morse wrote the following in response to something musical artist David Crosby said in Rolling Stone:
To be honest, I’ve been overwhelmed by all the people who have died lately — so many friends, colleagues, musicians, parents, people of substance everywhere. I was surprised to see the subject even posed to rock survivor David Crosby in a recent “Ask Croz” column in Rolling Stone magazine. Here was his answer:
“There is no easy way to handle death. It’s one of the things we have to deal with as human beings. There is no clever thing I can tell you to help with the pain. The only way I know how to deal with losing those you love is to keep your heart beating. Get up in the morning. Feed the dogs. Make yourself some breakfast. Face the day. You can’t let it defeat you, or you’ve given up. I’m not a give-up person. It doesn’t work for me. So try to find the most alive, most joyous things you can do, and do them.”
Below is my response to Steve’s observation:
Indeed, for anyone on Facebook with nearly 5,000 friends, the deaths of others sadly has become a near-daily routine. Consider also it is not only your 5,000 or so friends who’ve become impacted, but their family and friends as well. Indeed, sad and tender feelings become exponential.
It appears Facebook presents an unintended consequence: As much as it happily unites folks by bringing them together, it also can become depressing as notices of death and illnesses intensively spread. Nonstop and many are the tears that have fallen upon my desktop keyboard.
As the page turns, I came exceedingly close to winding up in the I AM DEAD/DID YOU HEAR HE DIED column. This was due to plaguing heart and breathing problems.
My whole life, for decades, I carried one of the greatest smoker egos on the planet. For most of my life I smoked Chesterfield Kings, nonfiltered cigarettes. When the economy worsened and the cost of smoking became near-prohibitive, I resorted to rolling my own cigarettes. I used high-end surgical scissors to cut the tips to make sure each and every cigarette I rolled was perfect.
I even went so far as to place my T-Rex tobacco box on stage with a Clash punk band!
I nourished my tobacco box T-Rex with fried clams!
Amazingly, I’d roll my cigarettes to audiences and elicit exultations of “Wow!” to my finished product. I thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of my tobacco creations. As I grew older and the Covid days swept me into solitude — I became a seaside hermit — smoking had became my only luxury.
I was more than hooked!
What Crosby said is absolutely true …
“… try to find the most alive, most joyous things you can do, and do them.”
I would add, however, as one grows older, a secondary line of defense — clean oxygen — becomes imperative for living longer and being able to do more in life. You’ll discover even at a late age that quitting smoking enables greater longevity for you to meet those joyous challenges.
As one of the world’s greatest smokers … I finally and reluctantly quit!
Quit, if you can!
