How many facts are actually real enough to be THE facts of life?  There are many things that happen, that live, in people’s lives.  There are many things that are common to everyone regardless of where you come from, what language you speak or whom you marry.  Some people make enough money in a month to create banks and run countries, while others, spend their waking lives on street corners hoping for some change.  So, WHAT, are the facts of life?

Starting with the view of a child, a mother and a father are usually the fact.  What they say, what they do, where they take you, is all a fact of life.  They determine everything.  They are everything.  But, how many children live this fact of life?  The statistic is 50% of all marriages fail and end in divorce.  So, is it an actual fact that a mother and a father are a fact of life?  Even thinking of the simple things I always had because my mother was there to ask me to go and help her in the garden, makes me think, I was lucky, for a fact.  Even, the insects in the garden, amongst the soil and muddy water, are they facts?  All the spiders, earwigs, potato bugs, ants, daddy long legs and worms… just to name those I have seen in my gardening exercises…  are they facts of life?  For one thing, I know that a lot of people do not hesitate to go and step on these insects… especially the closer these insects are to the house, or your bedroom.  I always kill the spiders in the house..  I even kill cockroaches despite their massive size and incredible crunch of their shell….  If you look at the crushed cockroach, there will be a splatter of blood.  Does this commonality between every people, make insects and the killing of insects, a fact?

Then, what about soldiers?  What on earth makes people dare to lose their life just to get paid for doing it?  Is it human nature to want the excitement of possibly never seeing anything else except guns pointing at you as you point yours back at them?  Then, there ‘s the actual fact that people actually fire their guns, and if the fails, they will use the blade attached to the gun and stab every enemy the see.  Because of this, soldiers are heroes.  Everyone who dies, and those that return home veterans, is a hero.  Seeking out death, it seems will make you a hero.  But, why is it that there are people who consider killing and causing war a legitimate jog and career?  Is it a fact of life to create confrontation, disagreement, and rape and pillage, in order to create money?  Or, is it just a fact of life?  A way to keep from falling asleep where everyone else is making a killing with each project they do.

Are we too complacent?  Do we only pretend to live?  We continue  to do our routines every day despite all the pedestrians that are run over and killed every year.  We continue to go out late at night despite the presence of guns among civilians, despite those people who put you into a portion of the population that dares to mug, do drugs, or rape and even kill.  Just walking down the street, then, is a hero’s walk.  We do not even have rules to protect us, like the rules of war… that that prevents soldiers from being overly brutal.  The rules of engagement.  All soldiers ply by these rules, but not those who mug, do drugs, or rape and even kill.

So, it seems, from these examples, two facts can be considered actual facts of life, that every single person will live to see.   Number one, everyone who is alive, will have a birthday.  This day is yours.  This day will never change, and it is completely your day.  Number two, everyone who is alive, will die.  Everyone who is born to live, will have a day when they will die.  These two facts will never change.  You can only live if you are born, and you can only leave earth, and be considered human, if you live to the end  of your life.  As for insects that we all kill, let’s hope they literally decompose and never come back.

As for taxes and avoiding them, it is more of a game than an actual fact.  I find them a nuisance and try to find my out as quickly and as painlessly as possible.

I am not entirely convinced that there are anything in life that can actually be guaranteed.  I find too many disagreements.  I wouldn’t agree with many things anyone has to say that seem to prove that we all share life as a commonality.  That we all live, somehow, in the same way.  We are stranded alone, individually, on a floating blue ball, called Earth, in only one of a billion solar systems, in an infinite universe.  It’s always a wonder to me, a miracle, that I am considered close to people because we breathe the same recycled air and we drink the same recycled water.

So, everyone, Happy Earth Day.  It is coming this April 22nd.  Enjoy!