Only Guarantees In Life

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I once heard a quote “The only guarantees in life are death and taxes.” I have no idea who said it, or where it came from, but it rings true as you get older. Promises are broken, spouses leave or cheat, career positions change, friends come and go, technology advances, the world continues to change. Nothing (it seems) is guaranteed, except that we will all pay taxes and we will all eventually die. I am willing to bet given the chance most of us would avoid both! But alas, these are life’s only guarantees, the things we can bet money on and never lose (unless it’s to taxes). Somehow the fact we can’t avoid death makes us all want to avoid it even more. Whether it be by death anxiety, death paranoia or avoidance people find new and inventive ways to pretend death is not imminent and can be avoided. Through…show more content…
After a shopping trip with my mom when I was four I ran into my house excited to show my dad ‘something’ I had bought. I remember running past the aquarium our guinea pig Oreo lived in, and I stopped mid-run. The aquarium was empty. “Where’s Oreo?” I asked my dad? “He died.” That was all my dad had to say. He didn’t tell me how. He didn’t tell me Oreo went to heaven to play with other Guinea pigs and would be happier and had wings and would watch over me. Oreo was just ‘dead’. Oreo was also already buried. I didn’t get to say goodbye. I didn’t get to actually see what death was, or to hold him or pet him one more time. I remember I would go outside and sit by his little grave and my dad would come out and tell me to go play, almost like he was telling me to ‘get over it’. The strangest part of all of that is this: before the death of Oreo, I don’t remember the guinea pig at all! I only remember his death. Probably because it was the first death I ever experienced. We moved out of that house when I was 5, and even though I am 29 now, I still think about him when I drive past our old
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