Let's talk about insurance for just a moment here which, in case you aren't familiar with it, is a form of chance-taking where we make bets with thousands of huge companies for billions of dollars each year that we'll either be robbed, wreck a car, die, or lose our eyes.
    For some strange reason, insurance (especially life insurance) has become a bad word to most of us. We think of preppy, pushy agents ramming policies down our throats at very inconvenient times. We have impressions of manipulating, intimidating sales techniques designed to scare us into buying something we hope we'll never have to use. But if everyone were a little better educated about the true advantages of a sensible insurance program, a great deal of our reticence would disappear.
    One of the questions I am most frequently asked is, "Doc, how much protection do I really need?" The key word here is protection. That's the name of the game in a nutshell. Think of yourself as president of the United States. You've got dozens of agents working around the clock to look after your personal safety and hopefully protect your countrymen against the untimely loss of their leader. Well, insurance companies have agents, too. They're on the job twenty-four hours a day to see that you're fully protected against losses from nearly every conceivable type of misfortune, and they make sure that your dependents will be cared for in the event of your death or disability. Unless, of course, it's my insurance agent who spends most of his time either buying or staring at UT crap all over his walls.
    Anyway, back to business: do you suppose a president would ever fire his secret service agents? Of course not, but that's what you're doing when you say "no" or "maybe later" to the insurance man. Let me put it another way. Imagine that your wife and children are hanging from a window during a fire at your home while you're passed out drunk on the sidewalk below. As your butler rushes past you to save the family, would you say, "You're fired, butler--I can't afford you."? I can't believe you would.
    Perhaps an illustration might clarify my point a little better for you: "How deep will your pool be?"
 
 

    You spend most of your life climbing higher and higher toward that goal of financial security. But if an unforeseen calamity should force you to dive from the high perch you've reached, how far do you want to fall? It's like jumping into a pool. If the only water you have in the pool is your Social Security, you're going to hit bottom and break your neck. But a good insurance plan will start filling the pool so you and your family will have enough to float around on comfortably for the rest of your lives.
    You know, there's a story I tell people sometimes--it's a true story--which, despite its terribly tragic ending, makes the point far better than all of the cold logic and figures I could give you.
    This will only take a second, if you'll please bear with me.
    I visited a family in my neighborhood a few years ago, right around Christmas time. The man of the house (Mr. Smith, I'll call him) earned big bucks and had provided a comfortable life for his wife and kids. Anyway, we started talking and the conversation turned to insurance. Having dealt with several companies in the past, I explained the benefits of several plans I own, much the same as I'm doing right now. But Mr. Jones simply shook his head, saying, "Doc, I just can't afford insurance right now." Mr. Jones claimed he had extra expenses during the holiday season. I replied, "Mr. Jones, 'can't afford' is the way you should talk about luxuries. I'm talking about necessities like food, shelter, education, and income." I tried to emphasize that, God forbid, tomorrow might be too late, but I couldn't sway Mr. Jones.
    I'm sure you can guess what happened. Mr. Jones suffered a serious heart attack several weeks later and died. He had no insurance. The family savings went for his funeral. So, Mrs. Jones had to go to work. I ran into her last month in our offices. I was working late on my column and I spotted her in the conference room mopping the floors.
    That's right, Mrs. Jones is now the cleaning lady at the Wilson County Advocate.
    I asked her how she was getting along and she said, "not so good." She said her son, who's just about ready for college, had decided he'd have to find a job this fall to help her make ends meet. Believe me, that woman would have given her last dime to keep her boy in school, but there just wasn't any money.
    Do you know what she told me? The boy came up to her late one night and said, "Say, Momma, do you remember the bicycle Daddy got me last Christmas when he was alive? Well, there's another present a better daddy would have gotten me instead."
    "What's that?" Mrs. Jones asked.
    He replied, "He would have gone to see an insurance man like Dr. Meeker told him to."
    See, I can't help feeling just a little responsible. If only I would have tried a little harder, Mr. Jones' son might have gotten the gift he wanted. And that's why I'm taking all of this space in the newspaper to go over this with you.
    Please, cover yourself right now. Let the insurance company assume the risk of protecting your future--that's what it's there for. Put your signature on the policy below. Mail it to me at The Wilson County Advocate along with your initial premium of $8,432.20 and I guarantee you'll feel a lot better about yourself. And thanks for your time; it's been a pleasure talking with you.