I never really notice memorial benches but this one stood out. It was a rather lovely crafted example made of naturalistic blonde planks of wood that retained a suggestion of the shape of the tree they came from. It was also situated beautifully on a village green overlooking a lovely stretch of river.
The name was quite an old one, 'Sidney', so I initially assumed an elderly person. But as I stared, the dates didn't seem right. Sidney had lived for only nine days.
Later that day I encountered a very different memorial. It was an old tractor wheel propped up on the edge of a slightly bleak field opposite an area of concrete hard standing. A piece of wood had been shaped into the silhouette of a pig and carried the name of a nearby farm. A second plaque gave the names of a 'dad and lad' that it called 'two country boys'.
It was the morning that news broke of the discovery of Michael Moseley's body. The TV doctor, famous for encouraging a slightly pick and mix approach to healthy living, was found on a Greek island where he was holidaying. His disappearance, and death, has caught the public imagination in a big way.
Partly this is because we are now so health aware and proactive on this front. In a way, it is rather like the modern approach to spirituality favoured by some - selecting what they like and creating a bespoke set of rituals and beliefs that can feel like a modern form of superstition.
Health is like this too. We all have ideas about what and when we eat, how to lose weight, how our mental health affects the physical, how we can live longer and better...
At the extreme it manifests in tech bros changing their blood, taking hundreds of daily supplements, and exercising more than they sleep, in the hope of living until... forever maybe?
For the rest of us, there is a smorgasbord of tricks and hacks we hope can game us a bit more time, or a better quality of life. For us, people like Michael Moseley are the high priests of healthfulness. His death has hit hard because it underlines the ultimate futility of trying to cheat the grim reaper.
I'm no different. Yesterday, I was on a bike ride - part of my latest stop-start journey to better health. I have my own set of health superstitions based on nothing more than trial and error, observation, and supposition. I don't know if they work, but sometimes I think they do. It's a work in progress and one that we're encouraged to do given modern expectations of health and wellbeing. I can't even explain to my doctor what ails me. They treat me at the edges and will hopefully be there if anything critical happens, to cure or alleviate.
The rest is slightly up to me it seems.
It may sound like yesterday's ride was a morbid affair but it was anything but - it was lovely to get out and experience our lovely countryside. One point of memento mori is to remind the living to live and to enjoy life.
Hence the Warren Zevon quote in the title. He was on the Letterman show with only a little time left as he had terminal cancer. What should have been a terrible, sombre occasion is actually very funny and uplifting as he wisecracks through his last appearance. He sums up his thoughts on life with those pithy three words.
Enjoy every sandwich, and enjoy every ride. For glass half empty types like me, it's perfect bumper sticker philosophy.
No comments:
Post a Comment