farewell to all

I pen this missive from what may be my deathbed, but it is at least my sickbed. Death, that old hooded acquaintance, is just down the road, having a smoke and glancing down the street occasionally, looking at his watch. Where does he get a wristband small enough?

You see, I have been stricken by a horrible ailment. The flu. I want everyone to know my suffering because I am a sissy-boy drama queen when I am ill. Let others suffer in dignified silence, but not me.

Oh no, anyone but me.

Love one another. Cherish each day, no, each moment as if it might be your last, because tragically I now know first hand how fragile life is, like a snowflake melting on the smiling cheek of a little child.

Forgive one another! Call your parents. Hug your children. Buy that DVD box set. Dream big.

A wise man once said, in a now long forgotten Marty Feldman classic, "Life is as brief as a butterfly's fart."

Truer words were never spoken.

Don't weep for me world, when I have returned to the earth, and my bones are picked clean, remember me for the good times, for that's all we can do.