I remember when the President said none of us would ever die. It seems like such a long time ago. Did your family hoard food too? And then slowly realize we didn't need it any more? Crawling out of our walled-up houses, into the light outside, expecting starvation and ruin, but instead finding everybody else, perfectly healthy and feeling fine?

My friends and I used to throw ourselves off railroad bridges and smash onto the broken ground below, and get up laughing, dusting ourselves off to do it again, and again. For a short time I joined a group that traveled to other countries - where people still died - and set up camp in the middle of war zones. We'd take tea, hang up our laundry, both sides trying to blow the heck out of us, but we'd just take it and ask for more. The ultimate peacekeepers. Eventually both sides just got bored and went home.

When I retire I'm thinking of joining one of those organizations trying to build the first human chain to the moon. You just grab the most recent member's hand, and then the next person grabs yours, and the far end of the chain goes so far up into the sky you can't even see it end and you think "someday that will be me up there."