Writing Your Obituary

My body and brain is buzzing, the aftereffects of a day spent outside working in the yard, taking a hot shower, and drinking a couple of glasses of some really delicious sparkling wine that a friend recently gifted us.

Kevin Kelly, founding editor of Wired magazine, recently turned 73 years old.  As is his habit, he updated his list of advice - things learned from a life well-lived.  Things that he thinks might benefit people, especially if they could learn them a bit sooner than he did.  I was introduced to Kevin when he was a guest on the Tim Ferriss Show, one of my favorite podcasts.  I really appreciate his perspective, both because he is very thoughtful and because he is further down the path of life than me.

Kevin comes off as very likable, and intelligent.  I think you will find all of his tidbits worthy of consideration.  One item particularly jumped out at me - the notion of writing our own obituary.  I think this is a great exercise for everyone to do.

Writing your obituary as you would want it to read is an effective way to cut to the chase - what do you really want people to be able to say about you, unprompted, when your life is over?  If you died right now, what do you think people would say?  

This thought experiment strips away all of the B.S.  It creates the conditions for a real, honest assessment of where things currently stand, what is possible, and what is most important in this finite thing we call life.

Although we know it is finite, life is also indefinite - we typically don’t know where the end point is.  This indefiniteness allows us to kick the can down the road.  I urge you to reject this procrastination.  If you haven’t already done so, I think you will find it liberating to imagine you are gone, and write the obituary you would want to be true for you.

While you’re at it, you should pull together all of your user names and passwords, account numbers, etc., etc. - make it easy on your family to access all of the important stuff that you manage.  I have done this, and it needs a regular review and refresh - passwords are always changing, 2-factor authentication, etc.

If we do this properly, our last check (to the funeral home) will just barely clear our bank account, and our families can spend more of their energy celebrating us rather than figuring out how to take control of our Facebook account. 

This can be a dark, morbid endeavor - or something liberating and motivating.  You get to choose.

Sunday Supper
If there is a better, more satisfying soup for someone working in their flower beds than Kapusniak, I don’t know what it is.  It carried Lori and I through much of the weekend.  On Sunday I’m going to grill a nice batch of basic cheeseburgers, topped with this sauce recipe from Gott’s Roadside in northern California.  Rather than incur the simple carbs from hamburger buns, I’m going to chop up some of the cheeseburgers, throwing them on top of a simple salad composed of shredded iceberg lettuce, diced yellow onion, tomatoes and pickles.  In addition to this cheeseburger salad improv, I’m going to make a nice batch of this Thai Basil Beef, with a pot of rice.  The leftovers will carry us deep into the week ahead.

Sunday Music
This duet between Justin Timberlake and Chris Stapleton of Stapleton’s Tennessee Whiskey and Timberlake’s Drink You Away is fun.  This performance of Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters by Elton John at the recent Gershwin Prize celebration is lovely.  This performance by Annie Lennox of Elton and Bernie Taupin’s Border Song is just wonderful, too.

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please send it to them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,