“What happens if you can no longer make decisions?”

That’s what it says on the front page of the Age Concern  New Zealand brochure. There are more questions in the pamphlet. The next question is: Do you have an enduring power of attorney (an EPA)?”

We find the answer to the first question in the Bible:

“Remember your Creator

Ecclesiastes 12:1-5

Intr.:

in the days of your youth,

1.  before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, ‘I find no pleasure in them’ –

2.  before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars  grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain;

a.  when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop,

b.  when the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the window grow dim;

c.  when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding faints;

d.  when men rise up at the sound of birds, but all of their songs grow faint;

e.  when men are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets;

f.  when the almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags himself along and the desire no longer is stirred.

End:

Then man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the streets.”