Buying time or Giving it away

Last week visited my husband's close friend (in his late forties) who was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer. Needless to say the conversation amongst the small group of friends took on a philosophical tone. But I just want to share some take away from the visit. The irony is this person does not smoke, does not drink, exercises regularly and has always been very careful with his diet and has no history of cancer in his family. Haven't we heard this before...sigh..

But 3 things to remember as pointed out by his nutritionist is that our body can not take 1) too much acid 2) too much sugar and 3) can not have insufficient oxygen. This friend reflects on his lifestyle and concludes that stress probably is the chief contributor to his illness. Again not the first time we hear this right. We all know that when we are stressed, acid is produced in the stomach, we hyper ventilate and of course we crave for that sugar rush to make us more effective.

On the way home in the car, I reflected about the conversation which drifted from stress to his current focus which is to buy back time ( as against having lost it carelessly earlier on). This is through a combination of treatment, right diet, exercise, positive mindset and spiritual support.

Suddenly I recalled a situation which is like an antithesis to his. There was this acquaintance whom I knew many years ago. Our paths crossed several times, from the time he interned when I was in company A, to the time I met him when he was auditing company B which I have moved onto and when he appeared again as a soliciting banker when I was in company C. He related to me an incident when he was driving. Suddenly a thought flashed in his mind that all he needed to do was to drive the car into a tree and all his work stress would be over. Fortunately something shook him and when he was himself again he was aghast at that momentarily thought.

When one perceives one has perpectual living to do, one may occasionally think of ending the "sufferings" that comes with it. Only when one is told one's days are numbered one fights to prolong it. When will we ever learn?