Thoughts About Life & Death...

life & death...
Steve Jobs has died of pancreatic cancer,
and headlines scream and countless
words of acclamation have been
written, spoken, blogged, and tweeted...
more will surely follow, as the world
mourns the death of a technology
pioneer who changed the face of daily life
for countless numbers of us...
                AND
a child has died of starvation- and
another and another still...numbering
in the thousands daily, as headlines
stay silent and words of sorrow remain
unwritten...as the families mourn alone,
the death of one small child changing nothing
in the daily lives of countless numbers of us...
              or does it?
                  should it?
                  will it?

life & death 2...
Staticticians tell us that
in two more decades,
more than twenty-five percent
of people in these United States
will be over sixty-five...
and though some of us will
no longer be here, others of us
will, our children and grandchildren
and even great-grands among
the younger generations responsible
for our care. And how will life
look then, I wonder, when more and
more of us are elderly? Will we,
the elders of the tribe,
to living,  cling tenaciously to living,
demanding that everything be done
to prolong life, regardless of the cost?
Will we expect that countless millions
be expended for our care & comfort,
simply because we have managed
to live so long? Or will we, in the
time-honored tradition of peoples
living close to nature, of tribal
peoples everywhere, wisely know
when our time has come to cede
our place to those who follow,
unafraid to make the final journey,
and instead of clinging to life,
travel that road upright & unafraid,
singing hallelujahs all the way?