Tuesday, August 03, 2010

BEDAu, Day 3: Suppose you knew that you had exactly 24 hours left in your life, and you could spend those 24 hours in any way you wanted. What do you suppose you would spend your time doing/seeing/ eating/visiting/arranging, etc.?

Well, I think that I would basically spend it with my wife and my kids.

If money was no object, I guess I would want to spend that time somewhere amazing, or be somewhere that I had never been before to share that unique experience with my most loved ones.

But you, questioner, made that hard for me by only giving me 24 hours left. So, unless I fly against the rotation of the earth, it's gonna be damned hard for me to go somewhere that is truly outstanding. For instance, I don't think I am going to be able to make it to Europe or Asia or somewhere like that and have any time left to really enjoy time before I kick the bucket. And really, the bulk of my time would be spent doing stupid bureaucratic stuff like waiting in line, transferring my luggage, and sitting in planes.

That, my friends, is no way to spend your last hours on earth. And why drag your wife and kids along for that ride? Because there will be so much pressure for that to be a wonderous time . . . that nothing would go well and disappointment would surely abound.

So, lets stay local, okay?

I guess I could make it to someplace relatively close like New York--a place I've never been. But would I want to spoil my wife and kids first visit to the Big Apple by up and dying on them? That seems kind of selfish of me. And I'd stick them with the necessity of bringing my dead self BACK to Ohio for the burial and stuff like that.

So, I guess the other extreme is to just make a picnic of really nice food and take my family to the local cemetary. If I have the foresight to pack a shovel in the trunk of the van, they won't have that much work to do after the picnic is over and there won't be the depressing travel back home, right?

Of course, that is ghoulish to the extreme.

So . . . I guess there isn't a perfectly good answer to the question. More than anything, I think I should spend time with Lynda, Sarah, Grace, and Hannah making them adjust to the fact that I won't be there anymore. I need to spend time making sure they know that I love them and will miss them. I should tell each of them individually how special they are and in specific detail how they have improved my life. I need them to come away from the loss with a sense of happiness and security. Where that takes place is less important than the fact that it needs to happen.

So, that's my answer.

Thanks for asking?

No comments: