An Idaho Radio Host Prepares to Die

I’m a member of the Peter Pan generation. That’s not original. It’s from a marketing post I saw on LinkedIn. The writer was referring to the Baby Boomers. A generation raging against growing up and eventual death. Never mind the second half of the 20^th Century was an aberration. It was the result of petroleum and refining and may never come again. The benefits were focused on a handful of countries. By the grace of God, I grew up in one of those places. In the years to come, I fully expect references to God to return in droves. Once it sinks in that a way of luxurious life was a blip on the radar.

I watched Prime Minister Netanyahu on television. He quoted Ecclesiastes. A time to be born and a time to die.

I bring this up after a conversation with a woman who works at a cardiac rehabilitation center. I told her it was much cheaper to die than deal with our modern system of medicine. A doctor would like me to go to rehab. My co-payment could be $200 a week for 12 weeks. This month I’m also scheduled to go back into a large claustrophobic imaging machine that takes pictures of my heart. A follow-up to a September heart procedure. I had two stents placed in one artery. My heartbeat remains irregular. Otherwise, I feel fine. Except I don’t poop every day. That requires laxatives, which seems to finally work when I’m in the middle of a four-hour radio show! TMI? I’m at a stage of life where I don’t care about your sensitivities.

It appears to have come about when I had a change in prescription medicine. It may also be colon cancer. I had a positive Cologuard test in September. Another doctor told me it may be a false positive, but we won’t know until March. Because the probe can’t be used until I’m finished with blood thinners. Which I'm required to use for six months. Because otherwise the stents would clog and cause a heart attack.

The car is paid off but acting up. Repair costs are ahead. Maybe the walk across the city to work would be good exercise! It would also eat up six hours a day.

Peter Pan and Ecclesiastes. I’m not sure that if I pull through my quality of life will be better. Because I’ll spend my remaining days fending off debt collectors. I hope to work for another decade because I believe I keep learning things on the job. I took last week off and I was bored silly.

I don’t expect Medicaid and Social Security. The country is 33 trillion dollars in debt. These are relics of the 20^th Century. Unsustainable.

Don’t even talk to me about socialized medicine. If we had no debt, we would quickly build it up by promising the country every band-aid would be free.

Death is a part of the cycle. While I would like another 15 years, I don’t want it if I live on the street or confined to a bed. Boomers have been described as selfish. If we weren’t so afraid of dying we could do the younger generations a favor. Going to the grave could be the first selfless act many of us would ever perform.

I recall a conversation I had when I was a young man. I was interviewing Rhena Miller. She was the daughter of Dr. Albert Schweitzer. She explained that her father had said before he died in 1965 that the future of medicine promised great advances, but would outstrip our ability to cover the cost. He was a visionary. Nearly 35 years later I've never forgotten the conversation and what it means for dreams of eternal youth.