Dive into the taboo of death!
Say it like a traveling salesperson of yore and it's perfectly fine
I don’t really believe in taboos; I like to try to see socialization for what it is and know we can either uphold it or ignore it and act accordingly. I feel so strongly about this that I remain convinced we sometimes go along with popular preferences and aversions just because we think we’re supposed to think a particular way about a thing because we’ve never stopped to consider an alternative outside of what is in the dominant narrative.
Which brings me to: death. The dominant, Western narrative is that we shouldn’t talk about it, that thinking or talking about it is a “downer” and it’s morbid af to go there. Maybe because I got exposed to it early and in a very… un-ignorable way (three relatives were not just dead but killed before I was 9), but it actually seems like a topic over which we might all bond a little if we could get over ourselves and recognize we’ll all meet the same end eventually.
As such, today, write about death. In particular your own. How old would you like to be? What would you like to know you did? Who do you want to be with you, if anyone? Where do you want to be?
But, here’s the rub: it’s perfectly fine if this is emotional, but the aim here isn’t to bum you out, but to gain clarity. Because if your life right now looks nothing like how you want it to look by the end, that information might be a good map for what to do next right now.
Personally, I want to make it to 103 because who knows what the future of longevity or this hot mess of a world holds, but, all things being equal, I’ve never personally met anyone older than that who lived independently, and the 103-year-old I knew who did live independently was living her best damn life complete with wearing ball gowns anytime she wanted, eating whatever she wanted, writing letters on good stationary, big ridiculous dogs, a neat old house with a pretty view, and, my gahhhd, was she raunchy and funny. When she was done, she took a nap and left this earth in peace, hopefully, her mind and heart both full and happy. That seems like the way to handle things. But, you surely have hopes and a vision for the end of your life. That’s the thing to capture today. Let’s write.
