by Saint Mark (bio)
What would you like people to say about you after you die? What do you think people will actually say?
That's the secret, right? It's been said that the biggest awakening we shall have is when the person we thought we were is compared to the person we actually were. Hopefully, we can live to make them one and the same.
But, alas, as we let other people and things shape our lives for us, this doesn't seem to occur. Watching TV about good fathers won't make us one. Spending time doing our own interests won't make up for missed time with our spouse or children. Listening to other people's inspiring stories won't give us those experiences for ourselves. Reading about other people's great lives won't make our lives any better.
Now is our chance! Our moment! This day is the day to change what people will read in our obits.
Because others will most likely write about what type of person you were, here is a sampling of what may be written about you and me.
Some obituary authors just need to not be so reserved. Check out what Hunter Thompson wrote about Richard Nixon's passing:
“If the right people had been in charge of Nixon's funeral, his casket would have been launched into one of those open-sewage canals that empty into the ocean just south of Los Angeles. He was a swine of a man and a jabbering dupe of a president. Nixon was so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning. Even his funeral was illegal. He was queer in the deepest way. His body should have been burned in a trash bin."On the other hand, some have taken their obituaries into their own proactive hands. Derek K. Miller wrote his pre-humously:
“The world, indeed the whole universe, is a beautiful, astonishing, wondrous place. There is always more to find out. I don't look back and regret anything, and I hope my family can find a way to do the same.Here are some more classics that are unique and blunt.
“What is true is that I loved them. Lauren and Marina, as you mature and become yourselves over the years, know that I loved you and did my best to be a good father.
“Airdrie, you were my best friend and my closest connection. I don't know what we'd have been like without each other, but I think the world would be a poorer place. I loved you deeply, I loved you, I loved you, I loved you.”
What do you want your obituary to say? Do you want people to settle scores in writing after you're dead? Do you want to be remembered that you liked to play bingo and feed pigeons at age 88, or do you want to leave behind an inspiring memory of your entire life and what you've attained, accomplished, and become?
Take a moment today to write your own obituary. Then, live it or else Hunter Thompson may write something about YOU.
