Would You Want to Know Exactly When You Die?

Dark. I know. But I just watched the Time Traveler's Wife, and it got me thinking:
Would I want to know the exact time my number was up?

In The Bucket List, Morgan Freeman's character, Carter, opens the movie by saying:

“There was a survey once. A thousand people were asked if they could know in advance would they want to know their exact day of their death. 96% of them said no. I always kind of leaned towards the other 4%. I thought it would be liberating, knowing how much time you had left to work with. It turns out, it’s not."

In spite of Carter's warning, however, I am pretty solidly in that 4% of individuals who would want to know.

Knowledge is power, after all, right?

Which begs the question, what would I do with the time I have left? I think it largely depends on how much time that is. If I'm dying a week from next Tuesday, my answers would be different than if I'm dying in five years or if I'm dying in another fifty years, making me almost 101.

In any case, I'm taking out a crap-ton of life insurance to take care of my family and getting me a water-tight will.

Obviously.

If I'm dying in a week, I'm going to the beach with my loved ones.

If I'm dying in fifty years, it's life per usual.

If I'm dying in five? That's tricky. It's enough time to still be anchored on this earth but not enough to procrastinate for even a nanosecond all that I still have left to do.

It might be easier to say what I wouldn't do. I wouldn't tell anyone else. Not Sean-Martin. Not Geoff or Janesse. Not my nearest and dearest friends. I would not put that sadness on them.

I wouldn't let things get to me. Former irritants would fade away.

I wouldn't be involved in political rhetoric, save only to let the world know that the world's problems will never, ever be solved by anything so flimsy and flailing. (Heck, I'm practically there now.)

I wouldn't put anything off until tomorrow. If a notion popped into my mind to call a loved one or pay a visit, I would just do it. Spontaneity and I would suddenly be best friends. Maybe I'd give a courtesy call ahead of time. Maybe I wouldn't.

I wouldn't sweat the small stuff, that's for danged sure, or major on the minors. A kiss would be the biggest thing in the world and whoever is the current president would be the least of my worries.

I wouldn't pass up the sweets, and I'd send that treadmill sailing right out of our upstairs window. In fact, that would be the last strenuous activity I would do.

I would only drink the finest wine and tell everyone how much I love them. I would laugh every single hour and tell everyone how much I love them. I would give away all of my things and tell everyone how much I love them. I would cook meals for people and take them over to their houses and tell everyone how much I love them. I would teach kids to read and write what's in their hearts and nothing else and tell everyone how much I love them. I would stop and pet dogs and even cats and tell everyone how much I love them. I would stuff money and candy into people's pockets and tell everyone how much I love them. I would sing at the top of my lungs in public places and tell everyone how much I love them. I would watch stand-up comedy every night and tell everyone how much I love them. I would preach love, love, love, and more love...

...and tell everyone how much I love them.

So that when I lie down and close my eyes for the last time, there will be nothing left for me to do and nothing else left for me to say.

x

And I will go on from here in peace because I had the gift of knowing exactly how to spend the rest of my time.

____________________________________________________________________

Daisy Rain Martin is an author, speaker, advocate, and educator as well as a founding member of The Flying M-Inklings Writing Group. She lives with her husband, Sean-Martin, in the beautiful state of Idaho and teaches English and Literature during the school year to the best 7th graders the world over. Daisy spends her summers writing, speaking, researching, creating, gardening, and canning. Hope Givers: Hope is Here, is the sequel, of sorts, to her comedic, spiritual memoir, Juxtaposed: Finding Sanctuary on the Outside, which was her publisher's (Christopher Matthews) #1 top selling book in 2012. She has also written a free e-book for anyone who has or is currently being sexually abused called, If It’s Happened to You, which appears in its entirety in Hope Givers. Please follow her weekly blog, SATURDAISIES, which addresses a plethora of current issues including child advocacy, all things hilarious, and matters of the heart. She would love for you to join the Rainy Dais Community by friending her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

I Do Love Me Some Republicans

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I have written ubiquitously about American Christianity along with many, many others out there in the blogosphere and beyond. Much of what is written is very angry and resentful. Anger and resentment is not my jumping off place, however, and I feel a strong need to make a distinction between the political/religious 'machine' that is conservative, evangelical, republican, American Christianity and my conservative, evangelical, republican, American Christian friends.

To the former:

In my humblest of opinions, you have sold out to the Empire due to your insatiable hunger for power and your patent misnomer that you can legislate the Kingdom of God upon this earth, and our brothers and sisters around the globe are scratching their heads wondering if you're reading the same Bible.

And you're not listening to me right now anyway or even reading this blog post, so...

To the latter:

I love you.

I'm your friend.

I don't think you're racist.

I don't think you're what's wrong with this country.

I don't resent you for how you vote.

I'm not angry.

I think people generally do the best they can with the information that they've been given.

And I just want to make sure you know that I love you. No caveats. No qualifiers. I just love you.

I've been called the "L" word. (No, not Lesbian. Well, maybe just once or twice.) I've been called (gasp!) LIBERAL! Or Libtard or Loser or Lunatic. I have not-so-fond memories of being told to me face that there is no way I'm a Christian because of how I vote. No 'Dem' can be a follower of Christ. Period.

I didn't like how that felt. I certainly don't want to say that to anyone else and make them feel the way I did. And anyways... it wasn't my blood that was spilled for the eternal redemption for all of humankind, so I don't get an opinion about who is in the Christian Club and who's out.

We have to figure out a way to rise above all this political angst and frustration. Because the West is on fire and the East is drowning and there's a crazy dude in North Korea who wants to nuke us (and I ate TWO chocolate sundaes this week because why am I being strict with my eating when we're all gonna die?) and we've got hurricane after hurricane lining up like battering rams to pummel our coastlines and the white supremacists are emboldened like the heat of the sun right now wreaking havoc on the very fabric of our democracy.

Largely, my politically conservative friends and I have risen above all the political angst and frustration because we just refuse to be jerks to each other. Listen, I live in Idaho, the reddest of the red states, where virtually nothing I vote for happens.

What now? Am I not supposed to have friends?

I love these republicans up here and they love me. I'm sort of a pet. They think I'm adorable. They don't think I'm what's wrong with this country. They understand that I'm one of those charming little social justice Christians. You know, the ones who recycle and hug trees... which, to be clear, I don't hug trees because I love Jesus--I hug trees because I was raised in the desert and only knew palm trees and acacias, so give me a good oak or maple or elm, and I think I've died and gone to Dendrology-Heaven.

In any case, we get along.

Because at the end of the day, we can all make broad, sweeping, macro-sociological statements about the state of the world and who's at fault. But we live with and among each other in micro-sociological relationships where we look each other in the eyes and can see the expressions on one another's faces when we start throwing around names and insults and blame.

And, at the end of the day, none of this animosity will heal our land.

We have to forgive each other.

We have to read the red letters.

We have to find common ground.

I love our country, and I love its people. I will always speak out against racism and misogyny and poverty and war and encourage people to love one another and not be a sellout to the Empire because that will never bring the Kingdom we seek.

So peace, everybody.

#HopeGivers #HopeIsHere - WE BRING IT!

Bring it.

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Daisy Rain Martin is an author, speaker, advocate, and educator as well as a founding member of The Flying M-Inklings Writing Group. She lives with her husband, Sean-Martin, in the beautiful state of Idaho and teaches English and Literature during the school year to the best 7th graders the world over. Daisy spends her summers writing, speaking, researching, creating, gardening, and canning. Hope Givers: Hope is Here, is the sequel, of sorts, to her comedic, spiritual memoir, Juxtaposed: Finding Sanctuary on the Outside, which was her publisher's (Christopher Matthews) #1 top selling book in 2012. She has also written a free e-book for anyone who has or is currently being sexually abused called, If It’s Happened to You, which appears in its entirety in Hope Givers. Please follow her weekly blog, SATURDAISIES, which addresses a plethora of current issues including child advocacy, all things hilarious, and matters of the heart. She would love for you to join the Rainy Dais Community by friending her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

#Unity #America #Conservative #Evangelical #AmericanChristianity #Republicans #Democrats #Liberals #Racism #Misogyny #Poverty #War #Hope #HopeGivers #HopeIsHere