Todd's Take

Here's a cheery thought for your conversation around Sunday's dinner table, should you choose to gather with pre-approved family members in the same room or meet with extended family in a virtual way: If you could select from the 32 causes of death in 2017 listed by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), which would you choose?

See the list at https://ourworldindata.org/….

OK, the topic is a little heavier than the usual family chatter, but hey, there are no sports to talk about; we're all a little stir crazy from not getting out. The nation has been focused on rising coronavirus statistics for well over a month anyway, so why don't we quit beating around the bush and face our fears head on.

Death was probably not a choice for the 56 million people who perished in 2017. I'm going to go out on a limb to say that, for most, it's just something that happened. Some of you may point out the 793,823 suicides were choices, but even in those cases depression or mental illness can often blur the line of what is called a rational choice.

I notice when we talk about someone dying, we'll often mention that the deceased contributed to his or her own demise. "Well, you know, Joe was a smoker" or "Bill drank too much and never did take good care of himself." In an odd way, it seems to comfort the living into believing we're alive because we don't drink as much as Joe did.

Articles with titles like "Nearly Half of U.S. Deaths Can Be Prevented With Lifestyle Changes," found at Time.com in 2014, subtly hint that dying is our fault. We could probably all plead guilty to making poor health choices from time to time, but the title is misleading. Death can't be prevented -- only postponed.

Which brings me back to our dinner conversation. The latest global statistics from Johns Hopkins put coronavirus deaths near 90,000 and still rising rapidly. Compared to the 2017 list mentioned above, coronavirus deaths have already passed the number of deaths by natural disasters, terrorism, extreme temperature exposure and poisonings.

Deaths by fire are next on the list at 120,632. For all we know, coronavirus deaths in 2020 may eventually pass homicides (405,346) or heaven forbid, road injuries (1.24 million).

None of those choices are appealing, including the thought of contracting coronavirus. Like many, I fantasize about how nice it would be to die in my sleep, lost in some sexy dream, but that's not one of the choices on my list for dinner conversation.

Not finding a suitable alternative, I decide to read more about coronavirus and find an article at BBC.com that explains, "If the disease progresses it will be due to the immune system overreacting to the virus." "The virus is triggering an imbalance in the immune response, there's too much inflammation, how it is doing this we don't know," said Dr. Nathalie MacDermott from King's College London."

See "Coronavirus: What it does to the body" by James Gallager, March 14, 2020, at https://ourworldindata.org/….

Isn't that interesting, I thought. The overreaction of the immune system could be worse than the virus itself. Hmmm.

According to the Social Security Administration's actuary table, I've been diagnosed with an incurable case of mortality and have roughly 8,000 days to live. You wouldn't know by looking at me and please don't feel sorry for me. I feel fine and I'm happily active.

How I live those 8,000 days is my main concern. I certainly don't want to put other people at risk, but I don't want to live in a cave either. I want to be there for the people I care most about, and I intend to do meaningful work for as long as I'm able.

As a country, we're stuck in a tough spot. We're paralyzed partly by fear and by an honest concern for not wanting to make things worse. But we also need to make the most of the days we have been given.

In the end, I'm not sure it will matter what we die from, but I am pretty sure it will matter how we lived. I have special gratitude these days for the healthcare workers and people serving the public in essential businesses, including farmers and ranchers working to keep food supplies available.

In the case of farmers and ranchers, the market has not been kind to their efforts of late, which makes no sense to me. My hope is that, in time, the country will show gratitude for the hard work and valuable service they are providing to all of us.

This is no time to be reckless, but it's also no time to stop living.

Todd Hultman can be reached at Todd.Hultman@dtn.com

Follow him on Twitter @ToddHultman1

(GH/BE/CZ)

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