No Guarantees

I guess it shouldn't have shocked us, but now there's a study that shows eating too much red meat increases your odds of getting colorectal cancer (search). It arrives on the same day that we learned of another mad cow in Canada.

Tsunamis in Asia, mudslides (search) in California, blizzards and ice storms in the Midwest: Timely reminders all that there are no guarantees in life, or any guarantees that any of us will live a good, long life.

Some do — many don't. That's life. And death.

Hearing about the fate of an old colleague of mine from many years back brought all this back to me. He apparently has terminal cancer. This man who helped plan for people's tomorrows was now not looking at too many himself.

Here was a guy who armed himself with actuarial tables and life expectancies and outlined what his clients should save to live the good life in 10, 20 or 30 years ... is lucky now if he has another 10 months.

I'm sure he hadn't planned things this way. Things just happened. Like tsunamis and storms and diseases — they have a way of hitting you, surprising you.

What's that they say about the best-laid plans?

We all hope to go the distance. It's troubling, but I think good to know, there are no assurances in life, we will.

Watch Neil Cavuto weekdays at 4 p.m. ET on "Your World with Cavuto" and send your comments to cavuto@foxnews.com