Question.

[shadesong]

Link stolen from sterlingnorth
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/081602/met_10196069.html

Read that.

Now think.

What would you do if you only had 24 hours to live?

Tell me that. Follow-up question later.

Comments

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

If I knew? Difficult question to answer - anything I tried to do would be eclipsed by knowing.

I suppose I'd get in touch with everyone I know, and get them all over to the house. Pay airfares or whatever for a few people I haven't ever met. Make sure things were going to be OK for those I was leaving. Tell the gods - in an affectionate manner, that they're bastards for letting me know, because I don't want to.

In fact, that last is more true - I already live every day as if it were my last. So perhaps I'd do nothing different.

[snowelf.livejournal.com]

Well, if I only had 24 hours to live...that's not enough to get the love of my life over here...so I think I'd like to find a way to take my computer with me to the beach or into my beloved forests, and then spend my last time on Earth looking at the forest and saying my goodbyes to everyone and wish them happy lives.

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

You know what? I had a dream like that only last week. I dreamed that there was a war on, and I was hit by a sparkly bomb that I knew poisoned me, so I only had 24 hours to live.

In the dream I sat with my family in a beautiful hotel lobby and talked and just were together. I wasn’t unhappy, just a little sad because I would miss everyone. No one was crying, everyone was pretty much resigned and accepting.

Now, what would I do in real life?

I would go to my parents’ house and walk in the woods with Chris, and make love together in the woods. Then we would go to the house. I would want as much family around me as possible, and have all my favorite foods to eat for a warm family dinner. I would beat my mom at Scrabble fairly—no wimping out on her part, cutthroat game as always. I would be able to tell everyone how much I loved them and thank them for being in my life, and how much all my friends and family mean to me.

And then I would go to sleep and not wake up.

After the dream, I decided what I would want to wear for my funeral (no Catholic funeral!) Donate everything possible, burn the rest and scatter it in the garden to help living things grow. In the coffin, I would want to wear my green velvet dress, both of my pentacles, the emerald knotwork earrings Chris gave to me. Before the burning, Chris would get the jewelry to pass on if we had children or save for himself or give to family members.

This got me all sad and weepy. Though I am not planning on dying anytime soon. Nope, I want that farmhouse and raise heirloom chickens and sheep and have a border collie named Shep to herd the sheep and have a grey Connemara pony to ride through the woods and lots of cats and children and grandchildren. But I need to win Lottery for that dream!

[melintur.livejournal.com]

I'd write a goodbye note to everyone, take Heather and go to Disneyland, get completely trashed and go to sleep in her arms.

[m0usegrrl.livejournal.com]

... i can't answer this. i've already planned my death too many times in the past few months. i don't want to go back to that dark place in my head again; i've just managed to crawl out of there, and thinking about it is too tempting...

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

{{{{{hugs}}}}}

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

Oi! No thoughts in that direction for you, young Lucas. I said I was putting 'song's people under my spells, and you're one of them. So none of that, y'hear? Any more of that, and I'm going to bomb you from orbit with inspirational email written in an Oirish accent.

[m0usegrrl.livejournal.com]

yessir. [that made me smile -- thank you. =)]

More people care than perhaps you know

[kalenel-dot-com.livejournal.com]

I'm with gothwalk. Smile, and be heartened...you never know who is watching over you. ;) Perhaps not under my "spells"...but definitely under my watchful eye.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Not asking you to plan your death, Mousieluv - asking you to plan your life. :)

[dustyskinandall.livejournal.com]

this has nothing to do with my 24hrs... but I realized I forgot to give you my AIM SN since you lost them..
it's pretty easy : OneWomanRmy .

*mwah*

[tarpo.livejournal.com]

call every person I can think of and tell them what I think of them.. good or bad.. get the people that mean more to me than anything else around me.. and write them each a note to read after I die..

And run naked through a walmart ;}

[rollick.livejournal.com]

I'd sit down and write personal letters to a lot of people, coming out and saying things that social conventions and our own guardedness won't let me say. No, I wouldn't just go and tell them those things – who knows, maybe the doctors were wrong, and I wouldn't want to make my last hours stiff and uncomfortable, much less the rest of my possibly-extending-beyond-24-hours life. Because until it actually happened, I wouldn't entirely believe it.

For the same reason, I wouldn't tell people I was dying, apart from my SO. After the letters were done and everything was in order, I'd round up a whole bunch of people – including some of those same friends – and get together and hang out for most of the rest of the day. If I told them, they'd just get grim and weepy, and who wants to spend their last hours that way? I'd want it to be as normal as possible.

Then back home with my SO for the last intimacies and quiet time. I would want to call my parents and sister to explain things and say goodbye, and let them know that I saw it coming and I was okay. But they'd be the only ones.

That doesn't necessarily paint a very flattering image of me, but it's the truth.

[nukewolf.livejournal.com]

I think about death too much as it is, but I figure I'd call my out-of-state family and say my goodbyes, make as many arrangements as practical to make sure Brandy and everyone else was taken care of (finances, property, will, etc), cook my last dinner for the family, enjoy a pleasant evening in the company of friends, and just go to sleep.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

I posted my answer in my LJ. It's not what I'd do, but what your question made me think of.

[chelona.livejournal.com]

Spend time with my family being happy.

[two-star.livejournal.com]

I'd put as much as I could of my creative work up on the web that isn't already. Then I'd write a will, because I'll likely have put it off. Then I'd probably do something really crazy, like spoil myself with takeout Thai food. Then I'd lie down on a rubber blanket or something so that it'll be easier to clean up the mess when my bowels relax after I die, and I'd take a nap.

not much different

[wolfieboy.livejournal.com]

I've spent the last thirteen years making it so that my life wouldn't be too much different. I wouldn't go to work but just about the rest of my life would be the same. I like where I'm at. Now if I could just get rid of this requirement to work, I'd be set...

[gallowglass.livejournal.com]

I'm only 6 hours from home, so I'd go back and visit all the old places one last time, see if I could exorcise a few ghosts before I go. Then I'd call a few people and say goodbye. That should take care of it.

[crimmycat.livejournal.com]

leave a half-cryptic message on LJ, like "so long and thanks for all the fish"

email a couple people I don't keep in contact with on LJ, ICQ or AIM those I don't keep in contact with through email, call my parents and chat, write the last few non-LJ people.

write out my will again, go flying, spend a lot of time snuggled with Ashes trying to boost her ego,

take a shower, get dressed up and go dancing, get drunk off my ass and commit suicide so I cheat whatever impending doom was going to kill me.

[iroshi.livejournal.com]

Hrm. In order, then...

1) Update the letters to my kids one last time. (Yes, I've been writing letters to each of them as they grow up. The letters to Christian and Rose are in their memory boxes that Mark has.)
2) Go pick up my kids and play a game with them. Monopoly, probably; they all like that, and we don't normally have the patience to play it with them, since they're still slow with counting the money.
3) Set aside several hours to be online, contacting as many of my friends in far places as I could, and just let them know how much I cared about them, and how much I appreciated all the things they've done for me. Email those I couldn't catch.
4) Call a handful of people on the phone, to talk to them personally...kelrick, mamadeb, enju
5) Write a letter to my mother and father, and one to each of my sisters.
6) Spend the rest of my 24 hours in Chris' arms.

Hrm. Dammit, I don't have anyone to set on suicide watch for Chris yet. (Why, yes, there *is* more than one reason I want another wife in this relationship.)

I live my life, day to day, in such a way that I regret as little as possible. If I knew I had a limited amount of time left, I would devote it to giving of myself to others, is basically what this list is. Giving that last bit to everyone who would be really hurt by my loss, something for them to hold onto, to know that I'm not *gone*, I'm just not *here*.

[auryn29a.livejournal.com]

Okay. This is hard. If I had a week I'd probably know what I'd do, but 24 hours...hmm. I was going to say there's no one I'd want to see or spend time with. But I guess there is one person. My faerie fractal wolf. I'd find a way to be with her for a while and hold her and tell her how much I loved her and how much I still love her. And I'm starting to cry now just thinking of that. And then I'd go off alone and prepare myself to pass over into the Dreaming.

[mister-wolf.livejournal.com]

Um... panic?

[elorie.livejournal.com]

Throw a big-ass party with all of my friends AND my family, who are like me only crazier, and watch the ensuing havoc. Sit down and have a long conversation with the Wonder Boy, and write him a long letter to read when he's older. Spend some alone time with my best beloved, and sing all of the songs I've written one after the other.

[sterlingnorth.livejournal.com]

Wow, I'd never thought that a hit-and-run post would spawn such a discussion.

Most important I guess would be to get my mom's ashes, hop the next plane to her hometown and scatter or bury her ashes in the family cemetary where her plot would have been if we could have afforded to bury her. Afterwards, I'd go to Ferrels to get one last Ferrelburger, get in touch with all of my family there. They'd probably have a big dinner in my name. I'd ask them not to cry or anything. That would make this whole enterprise more spooky than it already is. I'd probably post a note on the few messageboards I visit. Then, I'd try to draw a sketch of my granddad for him, even though I'm out of practice.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

See, you inspired me. :)


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