"What's to become of us?"

My wife asked me that question the other day. She was of course referring to the fact that I have Mantle Cell Lymphoma, and she has Multiple Myeloma.

Had I been particularly sharp or witty, I might have come back with the reply, we’re going to die. It’s the obvious answer of course, since we’re all going to die eventually. But as is typical of me and George Castanza (Seinfeld), I only come up with the witty responses days afterwards.

The point is we are all going to die eventually. It’s just that we all have a different perspective on when that's going to happen.

Some of us will die unexpectedly from some sort of accident, sudden heart attack, stroke or other similar type occurrence. Others will die after the body just gives out from old age, and still others will die after a long or short battle with some chronic disease, i.e. diabetes, obesity, cancer or other untreatable disease.

My wife and I are in the latter situation, and while it certainly isn’t an enviable position to be in, i.e. we didn’t choose to be in this position, neither does it mean our futures are particularly bleak. Our future is just more current.

I know of a few people, as I am sure many of you do also, who have worked all their lives, saving and planning for retirement, and when the time comes, they are either too old to enjoy their retirement, or die prematurely from some accident, disease etc. (as mentioned previously), never getting the opportunity to really enjoy their retirement.

My wife and I aren’t going to let that happen. I'm not going to let that happen! What ever time we have left, we are going to enjoy it. We’re both still healthy, that is we are asymptomatic, and we have enough money saved to enjoy whatever time we do have left.

For the near term, we’re going to San Francisco over the labor day weekend, and two weeks after that we’re heading to Italy, Rome and Tuscany, to savor the food and the wine, and enjoy the people and the countryside. (BTW, if any of you know of a good Myeloma or Lymphoma specialist in Italy, please let us know so we can make the trip tax deductible.)

No other specific plans yet, but what’s the point in planning. The most fun is had when you do something on the spur of the moment, because you want to.

And I would like to suggest that you all do the same thing. Take a good hard look at where you are in life. Don’t wait till the future catches up to you. You may find, the future isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.