Movies, novel, autobiographies..
Such are literature that inspires our daily lives.
After watching the movie "SAW II", the second installment of the successful run of its predecessor, many thoughts were invoked..
In the movie, it was said that ....
If a man knows his exact time of death,
will he
a) slip into a life of despair, knowing his lifespan was a clockwork,wound only once and will stop at a precise moment?
or will he
b) treasure every minute of his life, fulfilling and savoring every moment in both enriching his own life and also the lives of others, in the hope of leaving some trace of himself behind in history once his time is up ?
This question brings back the memory of another book of which became a famous training course for many executives and professionals. In the book of Stephen R. Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People", it invokes the thought of its readers by asking what would the readers expect mourners to say of them in their own funeral. Though it inspires its readers to some extent of how they'd want their lives to be remembered by others, it may not have done enough. Personally, the former question will invoke more serious considerations on how one should live their life.
In the recently published "Freakonomics" by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, the real trick is asking smart questions. The right question to ask which brings the answer that will really satisfy the need to know. Asking a man to think about his own funeral and the things people are going to say at his funeral versus telling him his exact time of death. Now both achieve similar results. However, it doesn't need evidential proof to know which of the 2 will be more effective.
Knowing that, let us know flip the coin around to the real people whom know their exact or estimated death date. (Thanks to frank and honest doctors whom can hardly resist the temptation to inform the patients that. due to many research and statistics around the world, the patients will die within 6 months, give and take 2 months.)
Would those whom have got terminal diseases continue to enrich their lives? Would they care more than their diminishing existences to even go reach out to someone else to enrich their lives? More than often, it is not the case. Probably, it was a question they have not given any thought and thus when the situation hits them, they become at a loss of what to do.
But death comes to us all. Why is anyone surprised to know that it's their turn?
The clockwork, which was wound decades ago, doesn't slow down when reaching its end.
Sometimes, it doesn't even give warning signs on reaching its end.
Life merely stops, as abruptly as it started.
For those whom encountered such abrupt stops, they have the luxury of living their life fully till the end without any despair of knowledge of their end of existence.
For those whom will have the "luxury" of knowing their precise time and date, keep on living... or keep on dying..
It's your choice
Today is 1st May 2006
Time is 10:27 pm
I want to have the luxury of not knowing.
