To all of the world’s citizens who don’t get to enjoy gloriously good health: I am sorry. I am very, sincerely, truly, awfully sorry. I know that I’m incredibly fortunate to have enjoyed a life of mostly stupendous health, with few bumps along that road. I’m just superstitious, or pragmatic, enough to recognize that only a few little atoms or cells, a small dose of good luck and a platoon of guardian angels, or a couple of nanoseconds, separate the deathly ill from the sparklingly healthy among us, and all of this knowledge or intuition makes me all the more pleased with my incredible good fortune.

How’s *this* for a compellingly charming and romantic read! Imagine reaching over to the bedside table for a little light bedtime perusal and finding this lovely tome in hand. Among other things, I suspect I’d feel the urge to get right back up and wash my hands, imagining who was previously thumbing through the book!

Once in a while I get a little tickle from the universe to remind me just how lucky I am to be a healthy human. Most of the time, it’s nature and circumstance showing their cockeyed sense of humor by putting jocular hints and signs in front of me as I go along my way. It can be more pointed and poignant, too: those whom I love and hold dear, along with so many who are not connexions of mine, battle poor health and infirmity and imminent death every day around me. This is the painful and stark reality of our mortal condition. None of us remains untouched, unscathed.

This vintage sign always amused me when it still hung street-side in Seattle. Now, it lives Underground there, where it’s seen only on history tours of town. Once, it might have signaled (besides the subcultural club scene with which it was once associated) an old-school nod to better health. Me, I hope very much that I will stay on the better health side of the equation for a good long time before I, too, go Underground in my own way. Meanwhile, I’ll be careful to keep my “lower level” steam cleaned. Wink-wink.

But I will remain grateful forever, knowing as I do how near the precipice we all dance and how finite human existence will always be, for the long stretches of grand health I enjoy. If there’s any way for my wishes and hopes, prayers and positive vibes, to reach even one other person on this earth with equally blissful health, I am committed to putting those tendrils of care and hope out toward each and every one as well. And I salute, in great hope, to your excellent health!