Wednesday, March 17, 2010

What Would You Do If You Only Had x Amount of Time to Live?

Have you ever come across one of those questions dealing with what you'd do if you knew you were going to die in an hour? Or a day? Or a week, month, or 6 months? I think the point of that exercise is to keep the time frame short. Could we intellectually handle the question of what we'd do if we found out we only had 2 years left to live?

I bill myself as the Stand-up Philosopher because I like to ask questions. I know, the inside joke is that I'm a BS artist if you've ever seen Mel Brooks "History of the World, Part 1".

But I like to ask questions about conventional wisdom. Does watching TV really rot your brain? What exactly is the point to small talk? Is it realistic to always be content with what you have? Should you really expect to get rich by winning the
lottery
? And is the Internet doing something to our brains besides
making us think it's doing something to our brains
?


I'd like to tackle the hypothetical question of what would you do if you only had x amount of time to live.

I think the question is designed to get you to think about what's important in your life. That's fine. There aren't supposed to be any right or wrong answers, but I think the question is designed to get you to respond with some of the following:

  • Stop working so much

  • Spend time with family

  • Do something fearless, like climb Mt. Everest

  • Do something legacy building, like work with inner-city youth


I can tell you some things I wouldn't do. I wouldn't climb Mt. Everest. I wouldn't participate in a cycle race, or a marathon.

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