Thoughts on the road, 9.14.18

Been awhile since I done that.  I guess I like to drive, and to think while I
drive.  Probably not a good habit.

Anyway, one thing I was thinking about was how satisfying it is sometimes when
I think I did something pretty good, and that feeling that goes with it.  Only
thing is, that feeling doesn't last.

Sure enough, I got to thinking again.  Derned if I didn't start thinking about
the subject of Hobbesian choices.

( Note:  After looking up the term, I realize that what I write below is incorrect. )

Hey, Vern!  What's that choice thing again?

You probably know what that is.  Some kid may have asked you that when you were
a kid yourself.  Would you rather be boiled in oil, or ride on a mile long razor
blade?  You have to make a choice! 

Like hell I do.  I refused to answer such questions.

Eventually you have to, though.  A Hobbesian choice could be one in which you have
to choose the manner of your death, and it's not optional.  Consider those people
trapped in the World Trade Center on 9-11-2001.  Their choice was jump to their
death, or be burned to death.  There was no escape, and no other options.

I haven't had to make such a choice, obviously.  For if I had, I wouldn't be
writing this little ditty.

But I may have gotten closer to it than I would have liked.  I have a notion now
of what that may be like.

I could have had to choose between dying from cancer later, or dying on the operating
table now.  My cancer would have required a very lengthy and difficult surgery
that few surgeons want to attempt.  Even if I had lived through it, the rehab
would have been long and difficult.  Not to mention that I would never have been
the same again.

I have heard that people when faced with this type of news commit suicide.

When I think back over all this that has happened in the last couple years, I am
amazed at how lucky I was.

I had proton therapy to treat that cancer.  It didn't cause pain at all until the
end of the treatment, and that was no worse than a sunburn.

It bought me a quality of life far superior than what I might have had to accept
if this therapy wasn't available to me.  That is why I was so very lucky.

Eventually, the luck runs out.  It does for us all.

Not trying to be morbid here.  No sir.  But it is sobering to think of it.

The moral here?  Maybe none.  Or, perhaps don't tempt fate.  It will come soon
enough.

After including the note above, maybe there is no moral.  Just stop wasting your time
thinking about dumb stuff!