Make it count

Omigod, does this mean that, no matter how careful we are, how many precautions we take, how many risks we try to sue away, we are all, in the end, going to die anyway? Say it ain't so:

Tim Russert was a good patient, taking medications for his heart disease and exercising, his doctor said. He had no chest pains and he passed an exercise stress test weeks ago. Yet at 58, he suffered a heart attack and died.

That's not uncommon, say cardiologists. Heart disease patients can significantly reduce their chances of a heart attack, but they can't totally prevent it, said Dr. Howard Hodis of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.

"Under the most ideal circumstances, there's still going to be individuals who succumb to the disease process. It's never going to be 100 percent," said Hodis.

We're all born, we all die. That may be the only true thing I know. All any of of us can do is to choose something to care about that makes our brief interlude matter to other people as much as possible. Russert did a pretty good job of it.