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If you were dying and/or sick, what would you want your children, family &/or friends to know, before you go?

Waxing existential today, forgive me.
You could, I suppose, also consider this graduation speech fodder.

I think this question is hardest to answer for those with young kids: there's perhaps a longer list of what you'd want to impart.
But what, among the things you haven't had the courage or time or urgency to say, would you want to make sure to pass on before your time was up?

For my part:
If you fall in love with humanity, you're in good company. In all things, be confident and your dreams will become realities: Sometimes not knowing something's impossible is all you need to make it happen. Luck is real: it's simply the sum of opportunity+preparedness+optimism. Live each day like it's the last one on earth and you'll be fine. Overtime is for chumps. Your mind and body are the tools you get from the start and keep till nearly the end: hone them and the spirit will follow. Be imperfect, learn from mistakes, (...and trust me about the sunscreen). Marriage is work; it requires effort daily, and it's easily one of the best fulltime jobs available. Important Causes can be distractions: if you apply the salve to humanity and people's spirits, the causes will fall into line on their own - besides: despite all the drama/infighting/waste of time, the progressives, eventually, always win. We are nothing short of light and stardust - we are indeed luminous beings: God is nothing more or less than that which resides in you - imagination+creativity+virtue+power+the secret ingredient. If you've figured out how important love is, not just possessing it but being free to gift it, recycle it, grow it... then you've nabbed yourself the secret of life. There is no such thing as mis-spending one's youth unless you spend it doing nothing.
I was always more proud of you than anything in the world. Always.

Rev.Enant asked in Whatever about 1 year ago | Report

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6 Answers

  • Qlandav2ex_small
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    Russ Campbell, NWEBS

    Much of what is written about parting words seems to me to be the stuff of fable, literature and film.

    What lives on in the hearts and minds of others is not what is said upon departure but how the life was lived, exalted, enjoyed, endured, and dedicated.

    My experiences (now that I am the last of my immediate family left on this earth) is that being in the presence of someone in the final weeks, days, hours, and moments of life places you so essentially square in present time that in retrospect everything is measured as before and after and not in the defined segments we mark by calendars and clocks.

    As I stayed with my brother in a hospice room as the cancer in his brain worked to its final conclusion I wrote in the dark and quiet of the night of the process and events. We were only there for five days but I had many pages filled. I have never gone back to read them and the final hours are seared in my memory without verbose description.

    My father's life closed with the decline of his true intellect as we see and hear so much about these days. I remember his brilliance and true kind nature and guiding presence over many years before his final days as the best image of him.

    If you want to impart a wisdom, philosophy or truth to those you may/will leave behind, do it daily and through example and deep discussion.

    Russ Campbell, NWEBS answered in Whatever about 1 year ago | Report
    5 comments by pickled ginger, Rev.Enant, and Russ Campbell, NWEBS…
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  • N871065272_8115_small
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    Tom Sackett

    Here's my graduation speech:

    Go ahead and try to fix your faults, but don't beat yourself up if you can't. Sometime in your mid-twenties, learn to work with your faults, rather than against them. Turn laziness into efficiency. If you're vain, use vanity as your motivation to exercise and stay healthy. Remember that there is no single standard for what makes a good person. Some people will consider your minor faults the worst thing in the world. Others won't even notice them. Avoid the first kind of people. Marry the second.

    Choose your affections carefully, as they will eventually become your personality.

    Lean to cook and dance. Both will get you laid. Dancing will also give you a way to have a good time at parties without getting drunk or stoned.

    In solving questions of philosophy, plumbing, etc, follow this rule: keep things as simple as possible, but not simpler.

    Sunscreen is good, but a hat is better. (However, see note on affectations, above.)

    Tom Sackett answered in Whatever about 1 year ago | Report
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  • Pd_small
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    Quitters never win.

    Misty Brown answered in Whatever about 1 year ago | Report
    3 comments by Tom Sackett, Bion Satir, and Rev.Enant…
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  • Spaceship_small
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    "Don't sell the Dow stock...."
    and
    if you MUST sell the comic books, do them individually on ebay...
    you'll get a better price for them if you take your time and do it carefully.

    O my captain answered in Whatever about 1 year ago | Report
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  • Lookalikes_small
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    The house always wins in the long run.

    Geni answered in Whatever about 1 year ago | Report
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  • Medium_2868373187_b2c11c89cf_o_small
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    I would want my family and friends to know. Not for myself, but to give them time to do what they need to do to move on in a healthy way.

    Basil answered in Whatever about 1 year ago | Report
    2 comments by Basil and Rev.Enant…
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