by Jonathan Dy   "The sun doesn't set the same way as it used to many years ago. I can remember the sun piercing the endless horizon, burying itself into the darkness as hopes for a promising tomorrow would ease me into a deep sleep. At an older age, I can only wonder if this sunset I am presently witnessing will be my last. I am dying. There is no turning back now, what's done is done and what hasn't been done will remain undone.   "The disappearance of the sun casts an uncomforting darkness in my silent chamber as I make my final prayer to end the day and possibly my journey. This journey, which has lasted decades, has consisted of happiness as well as sadness, success and failure, but as I have experienced much success in this lifetime, I still speculate whether I have made the most of my days. My time here is running out".   The fragile old body makes his way blindly toward the antique porcelain lamp standing solitaire on an old wooden bed side table. The lamp is turned on as a sudden light flickers until it stabilizes, emanating a weak, faded glow. Momentarily after, the old man slowly hobbles toward the radio recently given to him by a nurse, which previously belonged to a fellow patient who had just passed away. The radio, as old as it was, still worked surprisingly, although it could only get one station clearly. The dim light, which had briefly illuminated the room, faded into inexistence. The bulb was finished, burned out.   "I used to pray to God and thank Him for what he has given me; money, a house, a car. Now I pray to him each day and thank him for giving me another sunrise. Tonight, the radio would sing me to sleep".   His eyes close gradually with the thought that more could have been achieved in life. Too many a day was spent worrying about the future and not enough time focused on the "now".   Before he knew it, time flew by without accomplishing as much as he wished and without enjoying what he had. Then, time seemed infinite. Worries were put off till later, as he didn't know of an end. His end was now. As his eyelids closed for the final time, the images that accompanied him on this night forced a small grin on his face. The smile remained on his face but was soon lost in the darkness and crackling lyrics sounded from the broken down radio in the solitary confines of a chamber that has seen this much too often.   This is the man on the other side of the earth that you never knew and would never get to meet, this is the man you swore at the other day for driving too slow, this is the old man across the street, this is your grandfather, this is your father, this is you.   The radio serenaded him in the darkness to a place he had never been, and a place he would never leave...