by Richard LeBlond Kaileen Fitzpatrick For most of us, life is not short when we’re young. There is plenty of time to waste, and we take our share. But when you reach your mid-70s (which, as an ex-smoker, I incorrectly presumed was beyond my grasp) life is decidedly short and getting shorter. In my decrepitude, I have increasingly found myself compelled to write about aging. As the edge nears, all is fair game. I have written about the deaths of loved ones, about biopsies and