May 15, 2025

I have been reading Home Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari, which argues that one of the main drivers of the future (heck, current) agenda for humankind will be immortality, whether we like it or not. That our scientific advancements in health and genetics will lead the collective, not necessarily the individual, to attempt to eliminate death.

It's a sobering argument, and one that I read at the same time I have already pondered my own aging (as well as that of senescent presidents and college football coaches). Science may try to eradicate our do not use dates, but can it hold back our best-used-by dates?

Use-By Date

I'm honored that you want me;

Better check my used-by date?

Because it just might be too late

For me to give you what you need.

If you seek a holy savior,

This is not a worthy temple,

Apses and columns disassembled

By my impish misbehavior.

There was a time I felt quite big,

A giant only in Lilliput.

But such a swath was clearly cut

From a Helena Olive twig.

If you want an atrophy wife,

This body might be the real thing:

Lots of venom yet little sting,

A one-tooled Swiss army knife.

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Ah, sweet Jesus, I can feel these consumers all around me,

Sniffing, squeezing, determined to test me,

Sure in their belief that I still have something left.

Look, let me prove it to you romantic believers

So that maybe you can go away and leave here:

All of these lines in earlier times would have come so much easier

And with a better sense of irony

And harmony.

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These days of less regulation,

Products taxed at higher rates,

You need to check my use-by date

Before desired application.