There are few things in life that scare me. Very few, but there are also times that make you realize how exceedingly precious and serious your own mortality is.
I think this thought started Saturday night in a discussion with some of my greatest friends. They are the philosophers of everything conceivable. The discussion drifted from what type of glass is best for drinks, beer in particular, (who really wants warm beer at the end of the glass anyway?), to why wouldn't you want to live forever.
The idea is that by the time our generation is considered "old", there will most likely have been so much in the advancement of technology to not only alter our appearance so that we don't look 150 years old, but there will be ways to assist to make it to such impeccable ages or even reverse the aging process. So the question is, if you could live to be over 100 years old, would you? How valuable is it to stay alive forever?
I have to admit that I wouldn't want to live forever. Not necessarily for superficial reasons, but a combination of being content with my own life and allowing other generations to feel the same excitement of growing and learning as I have. The barrier in my idea though is that I imagine looking and feeling old. Will brittle bones want to travel the world? Teach a new language? No, or at least I don't think so. But if there was a way to alter or stop the aging process, I still can't say that I'd want to live forever. I'm content with what I've got, even if I haven't experienced everything that I possibly could have. I'm happy. So what does age have to do with it?
It happened to be one of the COOLEST car shows ever. I'm going to give a quick shout out to the Wheels of Italy car show. www.wheelsofitaly.com It is an ever-growing gathering of Italian only vehicles. I think the great part about it is not only seeing amazing cars that you'd almost never see, but you also get to see all the "rejects" outside of the gates. These so called rejects are all the other World's Greatest cars that are from all over. Still impressive, but not Italian. It's enough to give someone attention deficit disorder. You start looking at one car, admiring and drooling all over it and then BAM! Out of the corner of your eye, you see something else amazing and have to walk over to it and so the vicious cycle begins. But it really is an enjoyable day. I also must throw out a shout to Maserati. :D (Big grin) Me = Jealous.
Ok, back to being mortal. Part of this car show is riding the 60 miles to it in my Dad's FIAT. This is one of those 1974 classics that is in great shape, but definitely seen better days. It's an awesome car though. I love it's character. It can just be scary sometimes. Being that it is an old classic, it rides a little low, making you travel at 70 mph down I-94 at the same level of an 18-wheeler's tires. With the top down at that level, you'd think that it would take a mere catepillar to throw that semi off and squish you. The other thing that caught my attention is that aside from all the gauges on the dash, there are three lights labeled "Brake Failure", "Hazard", and "Fasten Seat Belts". Only the seatbelt light was on, but the thought did cross my mind if they light up in a specific order. It would be ironic if they did. Yay for mortality.
I have to give my Dad kudos on this too. He has done so much to fix up that car. It was in a little rough condition when he got it years ago, but it hasn't caught on fire since that one time about 6 years ago. All in all, the only thing I think we even had to check was the tire pressure and the oil temperature. Not bad for a car that is going to turn 40 soon.
Ok, time for bed. Check out the website though. Pretty impressive.
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