Last Tuesday night, I went to the wake of the writer, Raul Rodrigo. I hardly knew him. The truth is that I had completely forgotten that I had ever even met him. I met his brother two years ago because he’s the husband of an old friend. But I was there that night because, once upon a time, Raul was good friends with one of my best friends, and she needed me to be there.

Raul was 45 years old. He had a black belt in Aikido, watched what he ate and hardly drank. He went to bed Sunday night and never woke up.

Last month, I read on Facebook that one of my friends’ cousins suddenly collapsed while on a night out with some buddies. It turned out to be a heart attack and he died almost instantaneously. He was only 33.

The month before that, another friend of a friend was driving around with his father and brothers when he just keeled over. Like someone had pulled the plug. He was 35.

It’s all very random, isn’t it? It doesn’t matter how much we exercise or how healthy we are. We’ve all got a clock on us and when it’s our time to go, it’s our time to go.

So, yesterday, at lunch with my folks, I shared some fatty chicharon(pork crackling) with my father. Fat is allowed on Paleo so it’s totally in keeping with my diet but, if my dad were to follow his doctors’ orders, he shouldn’t be eating anything. Meat isn’t good for his cholesterol levels, and any form of sugar is out because he has to watch his blood sugar levels. Most vegetables are most certainly guaranteed to raise his uric acid levels. Which would leave him with what? Sand?

They told me about someone they knew. She played tennis, worked out regularly, and ate healthy. She was just about as skinny as me, according to my mom. And she was always on her husband’s case for his poor eating habits, according to my dad.

One day, she was diagnosed with a type of cancer that the doctors could not identify. She died three months later.

We enjoyed our chicharon without any guilt.

My parents are pretty active. They’re constantly abuzz with their little projects. They go to parties a lot and are always off on some trip with their friends. Although my mom gets a bit cranky sometimes, my dad is always in a good mood and they’re both very quick to laugh.

Yeah. I think they’re good.

At the end of the day, if we’ve lived well and loved well, we should be ready to go when that plug is pulled.