Bell Curve

So the preparations for my 40 year high school reunion (next October) have started to pick up speed. The weekly "sports page" updates of those who have passed beyond the mortal veil continues as well. Last week it was a girl who had been my biggest crush in first grade.

This week it was a list of the departed with the dates of their deaths.

A little quick tabulation showed that the attrition rate has been increasing at an exponential rate. It will slow down again after 80, when most of us will be already gone.

The middle years, the "normal years" drifted by with only distant thoughts of mortality. Those thoughts are here now, with an immediacy that is breath-taking.