Hey, how are you doing? Thanks for popping in, it’s always good to see you.

Sometimes, death seems very close to home. Firstly, there was a death in the extended family. I didn’t know the person very well, but they were only 41 years of age. That is absolutely no age at all. Then Dave Myers passed away. Now I wasn’t a massive Dave Myers fan per se, but he passed at 66 years of age, that is no age at all. Then Richard Lewis passed away. Now irrespective of his appearance on Curb Your Enthusiasm, I was a fan of Richard. His stand-up comedy was first class. (As I stated on some other platform, as I get older I seem to identify more with neurotic Jewish comedians – Richard Lewis, Larry David, Marc Maron etc – it’s like a more amusing form of therapy). Again, passing at 76 is no age at all. It has been a week of darkness, heaviness and realisations. At the age of 53, seeing these people pass at such young ages is a real wake up call because you just do not know how long you have left. No-one does. That fateful day is hurtlying towards you 24 hours at a time. So you need to make the most of now. You really do.

Then there is the other type of death; death of the ego. I was really annoyed the last few weeks over some totally irrelevant nonsense and I just had the realisation that, again a theme from Richard Lewis and March Maron (maybe also Stewart Lee?): I am not for everyone. Once I realised that there are some people you just won’t gel with, or they just don’t get you, or they just don’t see where you’re coming from, a little bit of my ego died and I moved on from it. (I was tempted to go down the ‘humans are incomprehensible’ route, but I stepped back). You’ll find your tribe eventually, no matter how small that tribe is. You’re not for everyone, and that is fine. Quality over quantity. Stand with the philosopher not the mob. You’re not for everybody, nor should you want to be.

Preceeding this I discovered that a friend has been diagnosed with cancer. They are just waiting to find out what stage the cancer is. They have this death of personality to face. Who they once were versus who they might be, in the very near future. Again, they are no age at all to be facing this fight. Death, it all its forms, stalks us.

All of this literal and metaphoric death reminds me of momento mori and the Dance of Death. The inevitibility of literal death and the thing that unites us all. Whether it is the literal death or metaphorcial death; time is short. We’re just the blink of cosmic eye. So make the most of it. Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think. Follow me for more cheery, life affirming messages.

Other than trying to philosophise on the subject of death, I’ve been working on a variety of writing projects as well as keeping the wolf from the door with the day-job. Hoepfully I’ll have some interesting news on those fronts shortly that I’d love to share with you. Until then, make the most of it, cosmic traveller, you’ve never as much time as you think.