Should I See My Doctor?

“What a drag it is getting old” is a line from a song by the Rolling Stones that makes a fair amount of sense as you get older—for more reasons than one might imagine. Award-winning author Barbara Ehrenreich, at 76, has decided to take old age in stride and accept that her health is going to deteriorate. In an excerpt from her book, Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer, she says,

In the last few years I have given up on the many medical measures—cancer screenings, annual exams, Pap smears, for example—expected of a responsible person with health insurance. This was not based on any suicidal impulse. It was barely even a decision, more like an accumulation of micro-decisions: to stay at my desk and meet a deadline or show up at the primary care office and submit to the latest test to gauge my biological sustainability; to spend the afternoon in faux-cozy corporate environment of a medical facility or to go for a walk.

Christians, of all people, might take note since dying is not supposed to be a disastrous event for us. Then again, I am told time and again by those who claim they love me that it’s for my grandkids that I should live as long as possible.