Would you want to know?
 

If had the chance to learn the exact date on which you'll die, would you? What about less specific - would you want to know the year? Or how old you'll be?

I'd have to say no, I wouldn't want to know. Yes, knowing would allow you to do certain things, say goodbye to people you love. But no.

I'd absolutely like to know. I'm a BIG planner. I could sell off everything I own, and set up a couple of trust funds for my two loser cousins(ain't it odd, that I'm closest to the two that are REALLY irresponsible).
The LAST thing I want is to just drop dead. What a ****ty way to go.:lol: I wanna take care of every last detail!

That would freak me out!

With my current health...
 

problems, No, I would not want to know when exactly I would die.

I most definitely would not want to know.

Interesting question. Thank god. I would totally want to know. I hope it would be soon, but after my parents die. Kind of weird, I was just thinking about this last night. Really the only reason I want to live much longer is because my parents would be totally sad if I died, esp. cause I'm an only child. They're only as old as Stevie, though, they could be around for 30 more years. :rolleyes: Keep smoking, guys! :p They don't drink, though, I think that extends your life span.

Also I would want to know so I could do stuff. And little things, like - I was going to get a bike helmet, but maybe I don't have to, if I find out I'm not going to die from head splatter bike crash. :shrug: And maybe I would hang glide or sky dive (I'll probably sky dive anyway) without being so scared. Plus I could make sure my house was clean and that there was nothing incriminating inside, and that I was wearing something cute. :laugh: Or if I was going to get Cancer, I could start saving.

I would absolutely want to know. It would sort of kick me in the ass to do things that I'm not doing now but want to :laugh:

I was told by a psychic that I'd be in a horrible bus crash at the age of 35. She said it wouldn't kill me - but it would put me in the hospital for a few months :laugh:

So I don't want to know about crap like that - but if I could find out my death date - even an approximate date - I would want to know. I'm really big on closure - and I think knowing would allow for that.

I do totally want to drop dead without warning. That would be awesome. Seeing as I keep my plate pretty clean I don't have to worry about a whole lot of "closure" issues. It's a concept I don't put much stock in anyway. I already have a will, so that's a done deal. The exact date, no. The week ? Okay. I could deal with the week. It might take a lot of the adventure out of everyday life and little decisions, but I would take the info and kick ass with it.

Put me in the I want to know camp. I want to live a long life, so long as I am healthy and happy. But when you're time's up it's up, you can only do so much. If it were going to be sooner rather than later perhaps it would give me the kick to rearrange my life in a way that makes me happiest.

I don't think the human mind could handle knowing such things...

Are they in a nursing home yet, or any kind of assisted living?
















:D

first time somebody asks me this.

i don't know. I guess 50% 50%.
I think I'd like to know, to prepare things for my departure (who keeps my house, my stuff, etc, if my parents still alive I'd leave them safe!)

on the other hand, what traumatic it woud be. Imagine you know you will die young!! NOOOO!!! Or too old, how sad!! No no,, I think it would be painful anyway

:laugh: :laugh: No, and both have fully functional hips. And even better, most of their original range intact. I think my mom still dances as good as ever, too. :laugh:

I don't know. I was watching grey's anatomy season 2 last night and I was watching the train wreck episode (actual train wreck, not meredith:laugh: ) and when the girl found out she was going to die (with the pole in her) I thought..."that would be so ****ty, to know you were going to die".so to know actually when- talk about stressful the week before. Then on the other hand, if I sold all my **** and went on a big adventure spree, I would be pissed off if there were a "glitch" in mine and it was wrong.

Guess what!! you're broke and you have 20 more years to live!! whooopss!!!

That's what I think, cause I don't think this mind could handle it, not could I function properly with that sort of information in the back of my mind. Plus, what if it's next week? Well ****, that leaves you NO time at all!

Wonder what happened to Stevie? No singing range, and a bad hip. It's like she's 75!;)

I have and survived the process 3 times already (December 9, 2004)

Baby, I don't want to know. I think I would live my life as though that date would be the defining moment. We're not supposed to know.

no friggin' way:distress: ~

seriously?

but the problem with finding out you're going to live to be 80 or whatever and being reckless is that there's always the possibility of seriously injuring yourself and being a vegetable for, like, 40 years. THAT would be my worst nightmare.

Why not? Life is boring and hard. Well, my life is, I know many people who have seemingly much more fun lives. I'm not actually too bored day to day, but objectively I should be. It will only get more difficult and dull the older and uglier I get. At least it is fun to look pretty and wear clothes and have sex. :laugh:

If I won lotto or something, I'd surely change my mind. Because then I could go wherever I wanted and do whatever I wanted. I'd probably have more friends, too. It's not that I'm suicidal, in the classic sense of being in despair and all that, so don't worry. I'm fairly happy, tell truth - oddly. It just all seems so pointless yet painful yet boring, punctuated by random bouts of fear. :laugh:

And I'll always be the same, or similar to myself, most likely. So probably many of my life patterns will repeat. I could transform to a point, but it would be hard. Basically I mean that it will probably always be similar to how it is now, and how it has been before, all my life. It's not really worth it. :shrug: Dying is natural, though - I fear pain much much more than dying.



:eek: I didn't even think of that! That would be the worst thing ever. Or if you were crippled. I would hate to be crippled. I mean physically. :laugh: There would have to be a clause in the knowing, to tell about being crippled or a veggie, too.

Wow, hell has frozen over. I agree with your points, 100%. ALTHOUGH, I absolutely won't let myself dwell on it. And you're right, life does suck alot more, the older you get. Real jobs, responsibility, mortgages, getting ugly (and thicker), all your friends get married with children and move away.
I don't have 10% the fun that I had when I was 20. And god I miss that.
I'm depressed now.:distress:
Wait, where's my wine?:shrug:
OH, it's right there!:thumbsup:
I feel much better now.:]

Score, wine!

Yeah, you don't have to be depressed about it, really. It's just normal. You can still have as much fun as you can have, which is cool. :nod: :laugh:
The less you think about the fun you aren't having, or bad stuff, or things that you could whine about, the more fun you have. :woohoo: Like I said, I'm pretty happy. Lots of little things make me happy, so that works out well. The world really is interesting to think about, and information is so accessible, that there is kind of always something to do. Like it is more interesting to find out ways to fix your problems then it is to whine about them, plus then you also won't be as bored, because you are doing something.
Whatever, it all works out. :laugh: :wavey:

For instance, right now I am excited because I am going to buy groceries, and having a nice late, quiet bike ride to do so. I have money to buy stuff I want, I really like to grocery shop, and I'm on South Beach phase one, so the whole thing is kind of like a fun self improvement activity. Then I get to eat, which always rocks.

Eating DOES always rock:shocked: :wavey:
And I'm not depressed about it, but REMEMBERING how much fun life WAS at 20, IS kinda depressing. But, whatcha gonna do? Waste your time being depressed? Funk that!
Now, wine glasses UP!:lol:

NO **** on all those points.

Not true. I haven't won the lotto, but a lot more money doesn't matter. It's your POV that matters. And money can't change that. The more money you have, the more pressure you have to keep it. And that begets stress and pressure. Trust me.

No joke. I am not afraid at all of dying. It will be a relief. Sleep forever and no worries ! AWESOME ! I do not want to die at all. Not now. But I am not afraid of it. It'll be cool. Can't wait to see what happens. Even if it's nothing.

I just don't want to suffer. Sparky wants morphine ! I have great insurance and a great doctor. It shouldn't be a problem. We've had that conversation already. I hope to just stroke out or something. But if I get cancer or some other lingering thing, I am on a friggin morphine ride to the end...yeeeehaw ! I am gonna hit home plate with a cocktail in one hand, a cigarette in the other, and a big ole grin on my face.:laugh:

40 is better than 20. For me anyway. But, glasses up !:blob2:

Absolutely true(although winning mega bucks in the lottery would probably be LESS stressful). I know several milllionaires, and most of them live like paupers(it's usually the self-made ones living like this), SERIOUSLY hunting down penny-saving deals at the grocery store (you probably think I'm joking, I'm not).
I myself, am in debt so far in real estate, that I'm so cash poor(no pun intended), that most months I barely can pay all the bills. I do though, but it's a big struggle.
Money is the root of all evil.

Really? All my friends(the one's that I truly felt close to) have pretty much all moved away. I only see them occasionally now. New friends now, in general, just have tooooo much baggage to put up with.
When I was 20, I was poor as ****, going to college, driving a $300 car, still living at home(because I couldn't have afforded anything else). And I was happy as a hog in a pile of ****! I had more friends than I could count, and every night was a party! Not just acquaintence (sp) friends, but people I'd known most of my life. They all just kinda drifted away(geographically speaking)........:(

weird ... i have never felt that way about life. i joke about it, but i never really feel that way. and that's funny to me, because i've spent the last 11 years of my life dealing with severe depression. weird. i really am a closet wide-eyed optimist ... my boss told me the other day that my cynicism drives him "f*cking insane," but what's interesting is i'm not even all that cynical or flippant inside my head. it's all talk, and it's funny, and i like to be funny.

maybe life is pointless, but i don't like to dwell on that too much. maybe i just find other people so fascinating and weird that i don't worry about the meaninglessness of my own life. i do spend a lot of time watching other people and not a lot of time working on my own life. maybe that's just a defense mechanism protecting me from seeing how boring my life is. or maybe i'm just rambling because it's 2:45 and i'm worried about my sick dog. i gotta sleep.

I was one of the people who moved away.
The ones who got married and bred I was never going to be close to anyway. It's just logistics. People who have kids only hang with people who have kids. It is the bane of the existence of every single one of my friends who stayed in my hometwon and didn't marry and breed. They are personna non grata with that set. Nothing left to talk about.
New friends are hard to make. It is true. If it isn't work, or someone I randomly have sex with and like, it's slim pickins. But, the newer friends I have found (less than 10 years) are strikingly similar to me, and we will be pals forever now.

It's easy to romanticize the past. We're all guilty of it. I did kind of the same thing. I can only speak for myself, but I keep exhaustive journals. I was not as happy as I think I was in hindsight. I was worried about the future and pissed that I wasn't independent. Now is better. I know who I am and what I want. I have some power. I am way more f*ckable than I was then (much to my surprise). And I have money ! 40 kicks ass !

I remember a moment at 21, sitting in my friend's driveway(waiting for them to get home from work, for the party to start),.....looking at myself in the rearview mirror, and telling myself that life was never going to be ANY more fun that this, at this moment in time(and it wasn't the PARTY, but those who were present). Ten(or so) of us, who were practically inseparable, at that time. I've never had friends like that since. God I miss them.

But, kinda back to AMber's point, or the antithesis(your point), having money and all the responsibility that goes with, certainly doesn't buy happiness(maybe only some distractions). And I find all that responsibility (or blame it for) taking away from what I perceive as a happy life, or the time/ability to achieve it. Yet, I can't seem to bring myself to abandon the American dream!:o :distress: :confused:

Plus, you have a pool. :woohoo:

Yeah, your life seems pretty fun. It seems like your work is a great fit for you and you enjoy it. That is important.
I'd probably at least like to see 60. There is so much to find out about, I wouldn't want to miss cool things. As long as I feel okay. :nod:

As to your guys' points about money, I see what you are saying, but you don't have to think about it that way. I know that is true that it gets more complicated. On the other hand, it decomplicates a bunch of other things. I feel like it is possible to have a different mindset about it. Plus, that is what life is and always has been is a set of responsibilities and tasks that you have to accomplish in order to continue your life. It is a challenge to be satisfied with what you already have sometimes, not want to get or achieve more always. It helps to simplify if you pare down your priorities to more essential and important things.
I dunno. :shrug: :rolleyes:

The only thing wrong with this premise is that people's fates can be influenced by a myriad of things they might do or not do, thus the actual "end date" could change. I guess Im trying to say I dont believe in a hard and fast fate, I think our lives have multiple possibilities that depend upon our choices in the here and now (or even from our past).

Now I have a question and a comment:
1) DrummerDeanna, did that bus accident ever happen when you were 15? and
2) Sparky, I didnt know you were 40! How many 40somethings are on this board? (raises hand)

I would not want to know...:distress: I am happy being alive and want to stay that way as long as possible.. if its going to be cut short I dont want to know...!

I'm not. I hear people my age (late 20s, pushing 30) going on about how great high school was, and how much they miss being that age, and I think...how could *I* miss that?? I was a sexually repressed closet case with no friends. I hated my family and couldn't wait to escape that ****hole town I was from and never have to see any of those people again. :laugh:

There are things I would have done differently if I could go back in time, but those were far from enjoyable years for me.

My 20s have been no great shakes, either. When I first moved to Austin, I thought everyone was my friend. I found out real fast that was definitely not the case. And I'm still dealing with the fallout from that.

So, I'm definitely not ready to go anytime soon. My 30s and 40s better be kick-ass to make up for the last 27 years. :laugh:

I've thought about this since yesterday and I still can't say 100%, but I don't think I'd want to know. I'd focus entirely on that and probably worry myself into the grave.

50somethings count?:shrug: (raises hand)

But you're not compatible with strand? :lol:

I hope to never...
 

have to be in my Uncle Doyle's position from earlier this year-He went to the hospital complaining of pain in the abdomen (Which had swelled up) to only be told he had cancer (He was never sick a day in his life)...He died less than 7 days later.

If I am gonna die soon, I dont wanna know since it may put an obvious cramp in purchasing upcoming music releases.

My 30s have been way better than my 20s if that's any consolation.