Life is a Full Circle

The other day, I had some email exchange with a friend whose parents and parents-in-law have taken turns in having some health problems. She mentioned that she dreaded the day when they would need assisted living, as her mother-in-law’s mother had Alzheimer’s and the last two years of her life turned out to be a nightmarish experience for those taking care of her.

I could not help wondering that the human life is perhaps a full circle after all, as I wrote her back. In the beginning, they have little consciousness, are entirely dependent, can't communicate, have no bladder control, and are entirely self-centered, but they are so cute and they change for the better every day. At the end of people's lives, they also have little consciousness, are entirely dependent, can't communicate easily either, often suffer from incontinence, and often become very self-centered, but they are not cute at all and they change for the worse almost every day.

We have all once been cute babies full of life and promise, and we all will one day become old, annoying and useless, if we are fortunate enough to live a long life. Too bad that life cannot begin with promise and end with promise as well, or is it precisely the reason behind various faiths promising another life starting exactly at the end of this worldly life? We all started out with promise, and we all want to end with promise as well. Whether or not we can believe that is a different story.