It is March 6, 2026. I woke up this morning and watched it snow with the happy knowledge that the snow can’t last long this time of year. Then I realized that I can’t last long this time of life. So I started thinking about what is worth doing with my remaining time on earth.
In our town there is a bill board with an advertisement from a group of plastic surgeons that says, “Life is short, buy the lips.” I consider this a classic case of non-sequitur. If life is short, why spend it trying to impress people who care about how fat your lips are?
Someone recommended that I write my memoirs. This is a valuable use of my time if someone is going to read them, which I see no evidence of now. And besides, the real reason I don’t write my memoirs is because there are too many villains. You can’t celebrate the heroes without exposing the circumstances created by the villains. Better to imitate God who “maketh the sun to shine on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”
But I will tell one experience from my life, the villains remaining anonymous. I sued a man to collect for his wife’s hospital bill since the law says spouses are liable for family expenses. The bill was for breast implants. The couple had separated but the wife who was not a party to the case was sitting in the gallery when the case was called in court. When the lawyer for the husband said to the judge that the bill was not a family expense for which he should be liable, she bolted to her feet and shouted, “That’s not true, he made me get them.” The judge told the parties to settle the case which we did.