SO, my question is, what is a lifetime?  do each of us have a ticking alarm clock ??

I purchased a nice little vacuum cleaner at
a very LARGE retail store a while back with a $2 a "Protection Plan".   Well that was on 9/6/2018 and the vacuum cleaner just broke, so I contacted the protection plan company and "chatted" with their very nice helper, and after typing in some receipt numbers (which I had saved) and some login information, "she" informed me that my plan expired on 9/6/2020 - at the end of the "TWO year plan".   So I asked, wasn't mine plan a lifetime plan - not just 2 years??  She said, only some plans are “”. So I asked, why wasn't mine a lifetime plan?  She said only refrigerator water filters are lifetime!!! well that was that, I thanked her for her time and assistance (I really wasn’t that upset – just perplexed) and I really don't need a refrigerator water filter that badly!! Not ever?  And not today anyway!

  SO, my question is, What is a lifetime?  do each of us have a ticking alarm clock or a blue ribbon somewhere at the finish line? Can we actually “buy” time somehow? Or is it “preordained”? Do we have any “control” on how long a lifetime might be? Billy Joel sang, “Only the good die young” as did Neilson in Abraham, Martin and John. Maybe this age-old (no pun intended) query is striking me now because I just crossed the 7-decade threshold and have been collecting Social Security for almost 10 years (Is it really that secure?)  But say, if we adhere to a very healthy diet regime, daily exercise, practice meditation, prayer and charitable service to others, does this give us a longer warrantee? Do vegetarians live longer? Do star athletes have guaranteed physical health until their last(??) breath?  Do saintly lives mean actual longevity?

    I think this is a subject well-worth pondering.  How long is a day and how valuable are the hours and minutes?  Could we all have more “meaningful” lifetimes if we asked these questions. In a wonderful impromptu interview on VH1 back around 1998, George Harrison proposed that inquiring about the “lifetime to come” gives us a much- needed sense of purpose and direction as we move on towards the “finish line” – from this life to the next, however we perceive it.

    So, I guess the moral is, if you buy a small lightweight vacuum cleaner, please, yes,  buy the 2-year protection plan, save your receipt and feed it lots a fresh vegetables if you want to use it for a long time!

The Prophet Muhammed said it best (paraphrased), “Trust is God and have Faith, but tie your camel”. So Please take care of yourself and those around you, as we all move steadily to a finish line somehow, sometime, somewhere.  And just to point out, this is the Baha’i month of Masa’il – meaning Questions!