Psalm 90 says, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten,” but Patty Duke, David Bowie, and Alan Rickman got cheated out of their full Biblical allotment by dying a year early. A Rule of Three for the Class of 69? Who else didn’t quite make it?
The Psalm continues, “and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” Merle Haggard almost made that and it surprised me, since there is no way I would’ve thought he’d make it to fifty. God must like him better.