Max Roser, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, concedes that the keeper has qualified to be an authority on “life expectancy” simply by living a long time; and therefor has a right—the audacity– to seek expansion of “life expectations” beyond simply counting time but to also include acceptance of basic decency and truth by his fellow travelers.
Good luck with that!
A recently released chart shows that while life expectancy is going up in many countries, it is dropping in the US as basic health care becomes unaffordable for more and more people.
Imagine that! In the world’s richest country! Too poor to live!
The keeper remembers how his father once responded to the question of what he would like as a late-in-life birthday present with: “Maybe a little more time.”
It isn’t the keeper’s birthday—9/11 when he will be, oh never mind—but if it were his birthday, he would like to think he might exhibit the good judgement of his father and simply ask for “a little more time!”
That is not likely as ignorance, narcissism, misogyny and money become more and more parts of the keeper’s daily “life expectancy.”
He would probably ask for some gift-wrapped birthday brandy!
