And I remember looking at these two versions of my obituary and thinking, Oh boy, I'm on totally the wrong track here.

But when I wrote that obituary exercise, I actually grew up a little bit in that moment and realized that I needed to create my own future.

While she didn't have any medical evidence to back up her claim that there was a relationship between operatic arias and pulmonary hypertension, she was absolutely emphatic I was singing my own obituary.

And and so I printed out her or I sent a PDF of her blog to her family, and they passed it out at her memorial service, and even in her obituary, they mentioned her blog because it was such a big part of her life.

I sat down one day and wrote two versions of my own obituary, the one that I wanted, a life of adventure, and the one that I was actually heading for which was a nice, normal, pleasant life, but it wasn't where I wanted to be by the end of my life.

And, as NATO approaches its 60th birthday next spring, there seems no immediate urgency about writing its obituary 60 year olds may reasonably look forward to another decade, perhaps two or even three, of active and productive life. But perhaps it is now time for some discreet reflection on the fact that the old man will not always be with us.