We love what makes us feel good

and we hate what makes us feel bad

this is true for jobs,

the air we breathe,

and the people we spend time with

Basically, the quality of how we feel is increased by the good

and decreased by the bad

Any accountant of life can tell us that

we make withdrawals from the good

far too often

and the bad stacks up like debt

maybe that’s what death is

not the final death

but death in life

this should be avoided at all costs

the good is largely a function of how we think

how we interpret what happens to us

and what we make of others

the bad is exactly the same

when no one listens

we are better off

and when everyone hears

there isn’t much to say

this is true, right before death

our personal eulogy

spoken

Who can follow us?

Who wants to?

the good in life

reaches out

and we feel relief

We aren’t the ones dying

even though we know

it has to happen

like the slow hands of a clock

winding down

to sometime, we don’t know

it is the great mystery

we can’t solve

who knows if it will ever be understood

the dead can’t tell us about death

only the living can tell us about life

not through their words

but through their living.