If I die young....

Ok, let's be real - I am pretty well past the possibility of me dying "young".  But I heard another story on the news and it's one of my PET PEEVES.  This was about a teenager runner who dropped dead of a previously undiagnosed heart issue while training.  And someone said that at least he died "doing something he loved".

So he loved running and so we shouldn't be upset about a 19 year old dying??!!  

Maybe it's because I'm an atheist and I believe that once you're dead that's it.  But I don't care how someone dies - when someone dies before their time it fucking sucks - no matter what they were doing.  

So I am running a 1/2 marathon next month.  And if I suddenly keel over - no one say "Well, at least she died doing something she loved doing!"  And if I'm walking my dogs and a drunk driver plows me over or a toilet falls from the sky like in Dead Like Me and hits me on the head?  It's a fucking horrible thing!!

So I expect a lot of crying and wailing because you won't get any new entries in this awesome blog!!

On a serious note, this has made me think a lot about life and balance.  There's the popular quote oft attributed to James Dean:

 It really is a hard balance.  I mean if I knew for sure that the world was going to end or I was going to die say 14 months from now, I certainly would never count another calorie.  

BUT since I have no way of knowing when my time is up, I can't live as if I will die tomorrow, because that could - would - result in getting fat and out of shape again.  Thus shortening my life.

And forgetting about weight - I love helping people change their lives.  But again, if I knew my time would be up soon, I wouldn't spend another SECOND in my office.  I would be out traveling and blowing my money on outrageous things.  But I can't live that way because where does that leave me if - as I hope happens - Marc and I live to ripe old ages?

So I guess that means their has to be balance between enjoying your life and taking chances and being a little wild once and a while but still being responsible and cautious enough to guarantee a comfortable and happy life for the rest of how ever many years you have left!

I think that I spent a good part of my life one way, swung in the exact opposite direction and now am swinging back to somewhere in the middle.  That's my goal, anyway!  How do you find balance?