People die, get used to it, but try to delay it.

It's unfortunate but people do die, even famous people. And some of them die pretty young. 

When Dale Earnhardt died I was writing for a racing website and wrote a column of my personal feelings of sadness and what I was doing at the time I heard the news (I was actually on a bridge going over Lake Norman, NC at the time of the accident). A woman wrote the website taking me to task for feeling sad for a racer, stating racers expect to die every time the strap into a race car. That got me to thinking. A quote from Sterling Moss came to mind. He was asked by a reporter in the early sixties if he expected to die in a race car. When Moss answered that it was indeed possible, the reporter then asked how he found the courage to climb into it each week. Moss's reply was Classic in my mind. He asked if it was possible the reporter might die in bed. When the reporter answered in the affirmative, Moss then asked him how he found the courage to get into it each night. She noted that a racer should expect to die. I found that dumb and noted the number of people, especially children, who die while participating in boating and swimming accidents. She replied that they didn't expect it! Whoa! By her reasoning, they certainly should have expected it! We allow children to play high school football and they many time die. Should they expect it? That's dumb!!! 

The point is that we don't know when it's coming but it is indeed coming. What is certain is that each of us will someday succumb to it. Is there anything that can be done? Actually, yes. While we know we will eventually die, there are reasonable things we can do to delay the inevitable. We can wear seat belts, we can avoid smoking and inhaling second hand smoke, we can eat better, stop riding with folks who drive drunk, obey traffic safety laws, install smoke detectors, etc, etc, etc.

It seems trendy for people to post all the dangerous things they did growing up that would be frowned upon today, not wearing seat belts, drinking out of the same cup as friends, drinking too much, smoking, etc. notes about the lack of safety devices, childproof caps, railings on stairs, leaded gasoline, leaded paint, no helmets while bike riding. The point of those posts is that they survived anyway. The point I think most miss is that way too many kids died because safety was ignored, and that's why it became law.