said the doctor with a smile,
   then your life,  or at least  the rest of it  
   might be pleasant for quite a while.

   I suppose that could be what it's like
   If you eat a whole lot less
   and spend much time on an exercise bike
   and avoid all kinds of stress ,

   follow all sorts of restricting rules,
   avoid any marital strife,
   more easily tolerate any fools.
   But is that what you'd call a life?

   So I pedal away on that damned machine,
   and choose the healthier foods,
   trying to keep thoughts pure and clean,
   hoping that fate will deliver the goods,

   then I look around at the terrible mess
   that we're making of mother earth
   with Gaia unlikely ever to bless
   that she brought mankind to birth.
    
   So I am filled with pessimism
   and I reckon I'll still be caught
   in some approaching cataclysm
   that is sure to cut me sh