Everyone I’ve ever seen asked this question always chooses ‘how’.  If you know how you’ll die, you have the freedom to avoid that thing and choose your own time.  If your time is fixed, you’re locked in.  ‘How’ is the obvious choice for freedom, right?  Well….

How I’ll Die

Let’s say I was told “drowning”. That’s easy, just stay away from water! Except every time you drive over a bridge and look at the water below, you’re looking at your own end. Every time your friends or family go to the lake you’ll invariably decline because you aren’t safe there. I would probably even give hot tubs a wide berth.  Some people might even move to the desert to avoid water.

Imagine if your were told ‘avalanche’.  Would you ever go skiing again?  Would you move to Florida and never venture north of Kentucky for the rest of your life?  What if you were told ‘heart disease’.  How many things do you eat today that would overnight be stricken from your diet?  What if the answer was ‘Someone named Phil’?  This doesn’t sound very freeing to me.

When I’ll Die

Imagine knowing that you have exactly 34 years, 2 months, and 9 days to live. How would you spend your money? Would you move? Would you quit your job? Would you get a new degree? Would you get married? Divorced? Would you take up skydiving, knowing that you’ll survive for 3 and a half more decades? It would be scary 30 years from now, but that’s in the far future.

Now imagine that you were told not that you have 34 years, but 30 days. You have one month before your time is up. How would you spend your remaining life? How would you spend your money? Would you move? Would you quit your job? Would you get married? Divorced?

You’d probably do things differently depending on how much time you had left, but you would know exactly how much time you had left.

I would say that knowing how you’ll die would definitely be the worse of the two options. You’d spend your whole life avoiding that thing until it either snuck up on you or you decided that enough was enough and you let it take you. If you knew when you’d die, you’d be able to do whatever you wanted and plan for the future and hopefully meet your end without regret.

What would we do if we were told not 30 years, nor 30 days, but 3? What if on a Monday you found out that you wouldn’t wake up on Thursday? What then? Who would you call and talk with? Would you play with your dog one more time? Would you go see a movie with your spouse, or would that even be a good enough use of your remaining hours? Would you make amends with an old enemy, or look up a long lost friend?

What’s stopping you from doing that today?

Momento Mori

Even the shortest time scenario I offer is longer than any of us are guaranteed. The only time we have is the present. You might get hit by a semi truck on your way home tomorrow. You might have a rare genetic disease that will give you 6 months time to get your affairs in order. You might choke on tonight’s dinner. We can never be sure that we’re even going to have a tomorrow.

“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”

Marcus Aurelius

This is how I interpret the phrase ‘Momento Mori’, roughly translated to “Remember Death”. I know that I don’t live my life like I’m going to die tomorrow, but maybe I should. I’d probably be less stressed about the little things that don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. I’d definitely think my words through a little more, considering that they may be the last thing I say to someone…

So as you go through your day, think about what you should be doing if today was your last. Don’t cash out your 401(k) and buy a Corvette, but maybe let the guy merge in front of you. Today might be his last as well.

Or he might be named Phil, so keep an eye on him.

-S_S