Last Tuesday we went over to one of the anatomist’s houses for a celebration dinner cooked by the professors and TAs. It was also the host’s birthday (as well as his son’s, who works with him in the anatomy lab), and as we sang happy birthday to the two, the host did a little silly dance with a big smile on his face. He has to be 60-something, and rumor has it that he was preparing to retire last year, but returned for another season in the lab. He’s an amazingly skilled and fast dissector. Nothing to be reckoned with.

So as he was standing there, doing his little swaying dance as we sang, I discovered this great appreciation and thankfulness for just being alive. Just being there. Enjoying the moment. John, the host, was just happy . He had family and friends around him, his children were grown, and he just seemed to be truly enjoying life.

For all that our society focuses on as youth being the ideal, the experiences of the aging will almost always certainly trump the young (besides a game of tennis or basketball). If there’s one thing that the old have on us (I’m still including myself as ‘the young’), it’s the ability to truly appreciate simply being alive. When you’re a child, you don’t question life; you just live. But it’s a much more powerful experience to see death all the time, and to be able to contrast it with one’s own life . There’s no proof you get any other go on this or any other plane of existence, might as well appreciate what you’ve got.

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