DROP DEAD TED

Ted Kennedy is 76 years old and he's going to die. America is somehow surprised? Patrick Kennedy is 40 years old and he's going to die. I am 38 years old and I am going to die. How ever old you are, you're going to die. Did I shock you with something you didn't already know?

Yeah it sucks that some of us are going to go sooner rather than later. Some of us are going to go from cancer and some of us are going to have massive coronaries and some of us are going to get hit by a truck. Okay so fewer of us are going to get hit by a truck than the other things but we are all going to die. Chances are heartthrob Patrick Swayze and incredibly inspirational Randy Pausch are going to die before you. Take it with a grain of salt, you could step in front of a truck tomorrow and overtake them.

76 is not very old but it's still a pretty good run considering he's a Kennedy. Any day you're a Kennedy and you haven't had bullets rained down on you, gotten blotto on drugs or booze, crashed your car or plane, raped and/or killed someone, done unethical things to make government positions available to family members, or been caught having an extra marital affair it's a pretty damn good day. If you're a Kennedy you can get away with just about anything except the bullets, you've even got a 50/50 shot of surviving the plane crash.

What is it about the Kennedy's that enthralls us? For the better part of the 20^th Century they were one of the most politically prominent families in the world. A.K.A. they were targets and all the good and bad they did was a soap opera the entire world bought into. Did we overlook all of their indiscretions and lechery because they took such great pictures? Wouldn't it be wonderful to be part of that life on the yacht and on the Cape and on the farm in Newport dressed to the nines all the time, adored by the public, and catered to by all? Wouldn't it be great to have a permanent get out of jail free while passing go and collecting $200 card?

We refer to their fairy tale world as Camelot and we made it that way for them. Lots of bad things went on between the lines of Arthurian legends just like they did between the lines of the Kennedy campaigns.

I feel bad that he has a vicious type of cancer. I feel bad for the middle aged woman I know who has been dealing with a glio blastoma since last year. I don't think I've seen nineteen hours of news coverage devoted to her plight. I feel especially bad for the 12-year old boy my son used to go to school with who has some form of malignancy in his brain that has no name but is ravaging his and his family's life. As of now there is no surgical option or even a treatment plan for him. But hey I've seen jars with his face on them around town asking for spare change to help his family pay the staggering medical bills so they might survive his death. Maybe we can weave a Camelot dream for them.

I think I'll forgive myself for not crying in my corn flakes about a 76-year-old drunk murderous politician living in the shadow of a dream we wove around his family allowing them to get a free pass on everything who has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor just like the everyday people I know. I think having been given an approximation for his final check out time is a pretty damn good stroke of luck. He has the opportunity to make amends for all the crappy things he's done and say goodbye in his own way to his loved ones. My friend who was hit by a truck when we were in our early twenties never got that chance.

No one gets out alive; it's all about what you do with the time you have.