Did you hear about the triathlete who was swimming in the ocean near San Diego, got bit by a great white shark, and died?  He was really unlucky on that beautiful early California morning.  The Pacific Ocean is always cold and he was wearing a wet suit so the shark thought he was a seal.  The seals were out that day.  Don't be mad at the shark.  He was just having his breakfast.  I mean, how different would that be from you having bacon or sausage with your breakfast?  Sure, bacon used to be a pig, not a seal, but kids love pigs (think Miss Piggy, for heaven's sake, although this is getting kind of personal right now, if you know what I mean).  What's really ironic about this story is the swimmer was a retired veterinarian.  Do you believe it? 

What I want to know is was Dr. David Martin just an unlucky triathlete who was in the wrong place at the wrong time?  Or was it his fate to go out in this way at that very moment? Was he always headed towards that morning in the ocean as his very last?  If you believe in astrology, you know that you can actually see an entire map of your life just by knowing what day, place and exact time you were born.  Doesn't it make sense that if you can create your life roadmap from your birth information, that somewhere in that information is the exact day, place and time of your death?  And if so, where does free choice come into all of this?  If you are fated to die in a plane crash, why not just choose another flight or don't go on that trip at all?  Well, you say, you don't know that you are going to die on that plane when you get on it.  But I wonder if we really pressed our astrologers, if they couldn't tell us when and how we would die based on our chart but they just don't do it for obvious reasons.  We can't run around knowing when we are going to pass on, can we?  Or can we?  (Anyway, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about this particular thing because I have no way of knowing exactly when and where I was born, being a teddy bear.  If I want a birthday, I have to just pick one and go with it.  So then would that mean I was making up my own astrological chart?) 

You know that silly thing people say about if you could know the exact day of your death, would you want to know?  Most people say they wouldn't.  I would.  If you knew, it would instantly change your awareness of the simplest things and make them seem like the best things in the world.  The thunder of a monsoon storm and the heavy quiet when it has passed, a night out with friends, the anticipation of the movie starting when the lights go down and you have already eaten too much of your popcorn, the euphoria when your team wins the big game, actually being at the arena when your team wins the game and not just watching it on tv, reading the paper, being quiet, even working.  Imagine how great these things would be if you absolutely knew it was the last time you would ever experience them.  

I have a feeling that Doc Martin was a little better at this than most people.  He took care of animals all his life.  At 66 years old, he was a triathlete, in great shape, living by the ocean in San Diego, California.  His son said they used to take night swims and do all kinds of fun things in the ocean.  He was very much at home in the water.  He wasn't afraid.  His older years were full, fit and vibrant.  If he knew, would he have chosen to skip his early morning swim that day?  Or, in his own way, did he know?  And he was going to train that day just like every other day.  

I know this isn't going to be my most popular entry because people really don't seem to like talking about death, do they?  And I doubt they think it an appropriate subject for a little bear's blog.  I think we should get to know it, talk about it, stare it down and try not to be so afraid and surprised by it.  It absolutely is going to happen.  As for me, I go when Mreesha goes.  Heck, when we first got together she was having a bone marrow transplant, so death was always lurking around.  If not in our room, in the room next door.  So we could feel it.  And we got kind of used to it.  I suppose I could hang around after she's gone but everything that makes me Gina Rose would go with her.  And I know she wouldn't want to leave me behind.  What if she is scared?  She needs her teddy bear.  Yup, I am going with her.  Until then, I vow to blog on.  Because you never know when the blog you post today might be your last.

GR