imagesWhile purchasing a set of Klipsch S4A headphones, the salesperson inquired about purchasing an extended warranty, a two-year guaranteed replacement. Having worked for the Better Business Bureau some thirty years ago, there are many calculations, that from a purely economic standpoint, that confirms there’s no economic sense to purchase one.

Yet today I burst out laughing heartily at a Pella Windows sales representative, who quoting windows for my home, queried whether I wanted an extended warranty above and beyond Pella’s 10 year limited warranty. The poor man must have thought I was nuts. When I explained that thirty years ago this April, I received a diagnosis providing an additional 25 quality years.  Thus, I am past my due … and all the medical events of this past week indicate I am nearer transition.

So at my stage of life, why buy anything? Certainly one can’t pass on or pay forward anything, let alone an extended warranty. Humorously, I wondered whether God offered anyone an extended warranty prior to our arrival on this island earth?  Or are we just a set of souls with an implied warranty?

To clarify, implied warranties are unwritten promises that arise from the nature of the transaction. It means when you purchase product, the seller basically says, “Yeah, it works and good luck.” For you and I, it means when born our creator breathed life into us and said good luck. There are no known guaranties. It’s the cosmic equivalency to a used car “Purchased As-Is.”

Of course there are expressed warranties. An expressed warranty is a verbal or written statement that guarantees a product will work in a certain way or for a certain amount of time, say one year, five years, ten years, etc.  Some could represent the Bible as an expressed warranty. But technically, that doesn’t count. I presume to say the Bible guarantees only that we will experience joys, sorrow, sickness and death. Hard to believe, that as a spirit, one actually agreed, for I have no direct knowledge of some hierarchical contract signed, sealed or delivered.

Seriously, at the end of the day, for me it doesn’t matter. Paraphrasing the character Red in The Shawshank Redemption, I would love to find the youth of myself and “… try to talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can’t. That kid’s long gone, and this old man is all that’s left. I got to live with that.”

There’s no warranty for any of us. I know the abundance of my days is pain-filled and moving toward a series of rather distasteful health events. I will never ever hold the hand of the one I truly love. I won’t see the Alaskan Glaciers again nor see the sunset from Upper Grinnell Lake.

But as a Buddhist, I know the only guarantee allowed: our present moment of love; to have peace of mind and heart and to feel good about our own existence and to be love to all those around us. We … yes us … must live out of this present moment. Write a heart of love on everyone met and as Henry David Thoreau wrote, “… find your eternity in each moment.”

This very moment is the only guarantee we have. Make each one count.