We dont tell the right stories. Or when we do, we tell them wrong. We focus on the wrong parts.
Like, there is a story we like to tell ourselves about life and in this story we will grow up, go to college and have a career, get married, have a family, grow old and when, after a very long life it is time to get our affairs in order, life will let us know.
As if death will be so kind to warn us, to inform us. Like after a trip, we will get a text, an alert arrives on your phone and says "say your goodbyes." Tend to your home. Contact your lawyer, settle your affairs.
We believe that story to be true until we are blindsided by heartbreak that seems so unfair. Beneath so much debt it is a struggle just to get air. Everything was fine and then out of nowhere the phone rings, a siren wails, we crash straight into a doctors chair as the hair on our neck stands up, and we stand up unprepared as she pulls the air from our lungs so we cant speak and we listen as she says:
Critical condition. Terminal. Hit and run. Its in his lungs. You are dying and there is nothing to be done. And when we tell the story of life insurance thats the story most agents tell.
They focus on the death, the tragedy, the saddness, but thats telling it wrong. And im not saying there isnt pain or heartache or sacrifice. Of course there is. Thats life.
I mean, those things happen. For the same reasons tooth fairies, sunsets, great wine, and grandchildren happen. Its life.
Its not that the tragedy isnt there... its that it isn't ALL thats there.
Theres so much more. In all this hopelessness HOPE IS there. But to see we have to shift our focus.
On the most tragic days, even after we are dead and gone, life will find a way to go on.
Sometimes what happens in a moment will stay with us for years, and yet the loved ones who outlive us will be asked to lift their head, persevere. That is why at some point in the middle of all those tears, a laugh, a memory finds its way out.
And when it is needed most...
A check appears with a memo that may as well read:
"Despite the fact that my body is no longer here, I still am. My love lives even though I dont. My presence will be present even though my body wont."
As sure as death is part of life, life is also part of death.
So, when your last exhale will wait no more your loved ones will pick it up from the bottom of your lungs, place it lovingly onto their own and complete your breath. The heart can stop beating even as it refuses to. The body can stand tall even as it is laid to rest.
It will... but only if you insure a check will check on them on your behalf after you are gone.
The answer is always NO when asked if you want to prepare for your death. But when the question is, do you want to take care of your family, the answer is astoundingly always YES.
When I tell the story of life insurance, I tell it like this....
Life insurance is the last love letter you will deliver to your family so that you can remain to take care of them from the other side.
But did you know that some life insurance policies can enhance your life before you die too?