Death In Purgatory

I had an interesting conversation with a coworker the other day...

Chris (who is a guy) is from Kenya and out of the blue he turns to me and asks...
"What day do you think would be the best day to die?"

"Personally? I don't think any day is really optimal to die. How 'bout you?"

"Sunday. I've gotten the weekend in and I feel like I'm getting out of work."

I've never taken a poll to ask folk how many times a day they think about their own death. I understand that a good portion of the population probably don't think about their own mortality on a regular basis.

Maybe they should.

Me? I probably clock in at about five times a day. It usually isn't about how I'm going to go, rather it's more in the line of non-being. Reflecting about my own mortality helps to keep me on track...

and off track

at the same time.

Thinking about death makes me think "Fuck! How much time do I have to do meaningful stuff?" I mean it just isn't a question of longevity it's about keeping myself in decent enough shape (like avoiding cancer, stroke, heat attacks) to do all that meaningful stuff. So I spend time going to the gym, working on my writing, not screwing up my kids, and not being an asshole.

On the other hand...

I think, "Fuck! how much more time do I have to do all the fun stuff?" It isn't just a question of how long I'm gonna live. I think life will be have a lot less "lifey goodness" if I can't enjoy the BIG 3: Fornication, Defecation, and Inebriation (not in that order). So I put a high premium on the here and now.

Even though I loooooove the Big 3 the fear of interfering with the "Meaningful Stuff Directive" is very strong. Unsurprisingly, this feeds into my daily inner conflicts particularly around food. I see a very nice chocolate brownie and I say, "I can't eat that brownie! I'm trying to stay in shape so that I can avoid physical and mental deterioration." Then I think, Dude, you could die of an aneurysm in five minutes. Do you really want your last thoughts to be, "Damn! shoulda had that brownie?"

Unsurprisingly I flee from the brownie.

Otherwise that brownie is a gonner.

One of the more useful things I've heard about death comes from Samuel L. Jackson. He was talking to George Lucas about Mace Windu's death in Revenge of the Sith, "I know I have to die; just don't let me die like a punk."

Good policy overall.