What A Shame

Crap. Today at 1:00 pm they are burying an uncle of mine. We were very close many years ago because he is only 12 years older than me and lived only a few miles from my family, so we saw them a lot. About 30 years ago he and his family decided to move back to a farm in the rural south in a part of the country where he and both my parents were born and raised. He decided that big city living wasn't for him.

I hated them for it. It left my parents without a single living relative within 700 miles and his decision to move was based in part on his unwillingness to partner with my dad on a business that he felt would "lock him in" to the city for years to come. Fine. My parents were okay with it because they understood the pull of moving "back home" and they too desired to be back in the lifestyle of a farm.

So for the last 30 years I go see them (my parents did finally return about 20 years ago) and spend a couple days to weeks visiting in the deep south country side. Rolling hills, fresh clean air, pure cold spring water and the smell of cattle in the air. Funny thing to me was that every time I would visit my uncle he would be inside watching TV, smoking and telling me about his latest electronic gadget that he had got. He worked in a tool and die shop 55 hours a week and had a hour and fifteen minute commute one way to this job. Not exactly a farming lifestyle.

Fifteen years ago he suffered a heart attack, then had lung problems of which both of these things were treatable and then manageable with a change in lifestyle. Stop smoking, stop with the fried southern food and get outside and enjoy the country. Hunt, fish, walk the hills, that kind of thing. Nope. Kept smoking, kept eating fried everything and became fixated on American Idol and Survivor. Six months ago he was diagnosed with lung cancer and was told because of the fact that he had not done ANY of the lifestyle changes recommended over the last 10 years that trying to remove the cancerous lung would be impossible. So he died Sunday.

All I heard from people was what a fighter he was and that with all the illnesses he had a "normal" man would have died 10 different times over the last 10 years.

So here's what I thought: Imagine the quality of life that he could have TODAY as a 63 year old man living in the glorious south country had he tried, even a little, to take care of himself. Think for a minute about all the life that will be missed and what WAS missed over the last 10 years all because smoking and an unhealthy lifestyle meant more than anything else. I mean he moved south 30 years ago to escape the dreaded curse of city living yet never took advantage of any of the healthy benefits of living where he did. And then on top of it all, wasted being a "fighter" and all that God given inner strength, to fight a battle that he might not have had to. What could he have done with those strengths had he used them in concert with a healthy lifestyle?

He was a good and decent man.

The new season of American Idol starts today.

What a shame.