Book of Questions
I was flipping through the book the other day and came across these two questions.
Question 78: If you knew that in a year you would die suddenly, would you change anything about the way that you are now living?
Question 140: Would you like to know the precise date of your death?
It seems that the two are interlinked by providing you a deadline (ha!) by which to fulfill your life's ambitions. As the window would get shorter, there are a lot of extraneous things that I do that wouldn't make sense to keep doing. For example, dieting doesn't make a lot of sense if your health is not a long term issue. I'd probably get a new job as I enjoy my current one, but I don't have the feeling that I'm making a difference. I'd still exercise as I get a lot of satisfaction from doing so. I would spend more time with my wife and child. I'd like to have more children, but I wonder if it would be responsible to do so if I wouldn't be able to parent them.
The question about how would you live your life differently is trying to ask why you would spend your limited time on earth doing some of the things that you do. I guess the reason that I do most things that I do is that I either enjoy them or that they enable me to enjoy the other things I do. I'm not really crazy about doing laundry, but I do it because it enables me to go out in public without too much shame. But there are other things that I don't do that I would do if I only knew that I had a short time left. I'd tell my wife that I love her. But I don't do that because there's always time. Until there isn't.
The two questions also deal with the idea of predestination, an idea I disagree with. If I was faced with the knowledge that I was to die at a certain time, I'd do everything I could to cheat death. If my health was an issue, I'd make some serious changes. If I was going to be hit by a car, I'd stay home that day. I would not go gently into that good night. Especially if there was something that I could do to avoid it. If it turned out that my actions ended up bringing about my death so be it. At least I could say I went out swinging.
Question 78: If you knew that in a year you would die suddenly, would you change anything about the way that you are now living?
Question 140: Would you like to know the precise date of your death?
It seems that the two are interlinked by providing you a deadline (ha!) by which to fulfill your life's ambitions. As the window would get shorter, there are a lot of extraneous things that I do that wouldn't make sense to keep doing. For example, dieting doesn't make a lot of sense if your health is not a long term issue. I'd probably get a new job as I enjoy my current one, but I don't have the feeling that I'm making a difference. I'd still exercise as I get a lot of satisfaction from doing so. I would spend more time with my wife and child. I'd like to have more children, but I wonder if it would be responsible to do so if I wouldn't be able to parent them.
The question about how would you live your life differently is trying to ask why you would spend your limited time on earth doing some of the things that you do. I guess the reason that I do most things that I do is that I either enjoy them or that they enable me to enjoy the other things I do. I'm not really crazy about doing laundry, but I do it because it enables me to go out in public without too much shame. But there are other things that I don't do that I would do if I only knew that I had a short time left. I'd tell my wife that I love her. But I don't do that because there's always time. Until there isn't.
The two questions also deal with the idea of predestination, an idea I disagree with. If I was faced with the knowledge that I was to die at a certain time, I'd do everything I could to cheat death. If my health was an issue, I'd make some serious changes. If I was going to be hit by a car, I'd stay home that day. I would not go gently into that good night. Especially if there was something that I could do to avoid it. If it turned out that my actions ended up bringing about my death so be it. At least I could say I went out swinging.
posted by mypetrock at 10:19 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home