Old Jules, what’s your relationship with death?
I figure it could come anytime because I’ve gone around the sun enough times to raise the odds in favor of me not waking up some morning or falling off the porch and not getting up, or just exiting the vehicle when I’m chasing deer out of the chicken feed. Mainly I try to make certain the cats have a way out of the house and someone will check on the chickens to make sure they’re fed and won’t stay locked up in the night fortress indefinitely. Death’s not a big deal to the dead but what’s left alive needs to be attended to.
Old Jules, what was your last leap of faith?
I trust that one way or another everything is going to work out and that for my purposes how it works out will be satisfactory. I took that leap again when I read your question, but I take it constantly while I’m awake.
Old Jules, what do you feel most grateful for today?
Same as every day. Everything that’s ever happened in my experience of life, everything happening now and everything that’s going to happen. For specifics, grateful for electricity, grateful for a shelter, grateful for enough food, grateful for my Pendleton Wool Blankets, grateful for my cats and chickens.
Old Jules, how bad is your life?
My life’s good and full of appreciation for happenstance. Generally a pleasure. I have a lot of issues at the moment, including a well-pump problem causing me to have to haul my water half-mile from the neighboring place, a truck I have to park on a downhill grade to get it started by rolling downhill, a couple of trap-wise coons occasionally getting my chickens without yet having to pay with their lives. But none of those detract much from the pleasure I get from life. I’ll confess I prefer a hot bath frequently here instead of a shower at the neighbor’s place, and it’s a teeth-clinching experience having to defecate in a hole outdoors mid-winter, but those are passing discomforts and have no bearing on the joy of life. Our ancestors had it far more difficult. I’ll deal with them one step at a time. Same as I’ve dealt with everything all my life.
So Far From Heaven 