if you were going to die tomorrow and only you knew what would you do?

jackpot@lemmy.mlbanned from sitebanned from site to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 78 points –

no you cant tell anyone youre going to die, you have 24 hours starting now

73

Convince my spouse to stay home from work and do all her favorite activities, basically give her a really awesome day to remember me by.

Tbh I think if this genuinely happened and I just found out right now, I would just start walking and not stopping. I would think I'd be the most mindful and alert I have ever been in my life and I wouldn't want to waste that. I also imagine I would also probably be extremely nice to everyone. Like someone's walking in the rain or something and I'd just hand them the coat I was wearing for them to keep. It would look really weird lol but I think that's the kind of hyper-selflessness that you'd just do without even a thought if you knew you were about to die.

Thanks for asking this question btw it's very intriguing. It makes me wonder if it's even remotely possible to live each day like it's your last y'know.

At some point it would become exhausting. You'd be mentally drained all the time; I honestly do not think it's the best to live life as if every day was the last, else you'd be missing out on life itself. Every single day that we are alive is a day that we experience life. Ups and downs are impossible to avoid, it's apart of it, but it's that experience which makes us happy to live - and thinking of every day being the last is allowing yourself to live in a parallel world, experiencing life as a mirage.

That was really insightful tysm for replying. I feel like you've thought about this before haha.

Yeah I think you might be right, sometimes it feels like a day's been wasted because I didn't spend it exactly how I envision a good day, but there are different kinds of good. Every experience and feeling is unique and it's hard to say that one experience or feeling is objectively better than another.

Also I like your phrasing 'happy to live', it sounds like contendedness which I do believe is possible unlike permanent happiness. Have you heard of that infinite happiness machine thing btw?

Would the phrase "live like you're going to die young/soon" be better as, atleast for me, it means that you should live life to it's fullest and try not to waste time on meaningless things

If you live thinking this you're only focusing on stuff which, at your point in time, find meaningless. Finding meaning in things changes drastically over time, and your point of reference is based on what you believe at a certain moment. During your childhood you probably found playing with toys to be "meaningful", but now during your adulthood (assuming you're an adult lol) you look at playing with a firetruck to be meaningless.

See the difference?

The time wasted on meaningless tasks are usually memories and experiences which we hold very dearly to. I'm sure as you get older you will regret not doing a certain thing because you're too worried about the future, and how different actions will cause different results if you waste a little time. I know for a fact that I already regret not doing the "meaningless" things I thought were a waste of time, like spending more time with my now deceased dog. I took for granted that he was alive, and never really spent nearly as much time as I wish I did, thinking that an hour of work was more important.

Contrary to what I've been saying though, the manner of living life like "you're going to die young" is also pretty valuable. You don't want to be on the extreme that you simply don't care about the future, and try to attach meaning to every action you take - it's destructive.

Really, there's no "right" way to live life, you can only live, make mistakes, take insight from your mistakes and mistakes from others, and to create your own way of living. It does sound corny as hell, I wont even lie, but think about it and do what you want with the knowledge you have right now.

Well said!

I'd like to add that even scrolling social media like Reddit, Facebook, Lemmy etc can be meaningful. I find it's like walking around town looking at what other people are doing. Listening in on someone ranting from their soap box, participating in some open air discussion, looking at cute cats in the park and learning something from a mechanic talking through a problem with someone standing beside a broken down car. It's also a social experience even though it can't be your only social exposure it still provides something.

It really is about variation and moderation. It wouldn't be meaningful, in my opinion, to spend your life on a rotation of the gym, cooking healthy, reading about those topics, working hard at some nameless corp and sleeping properly. But if you don't normally go to the gym it's suddenly meaningful to go. Life is about experiences and about challenging ourselves to find out who to be and how to be the subjective "best" version of ourselves, and that quest has no truly meaningless activities, all roads lead to the end of life and while we might regret some activities that regret in and off itself is a lesson that we took with us.

Thank you for this, I think it's now more about trying to become fulfilled in whatever position you are in life and trying to make the best out of our lives.

Although, as you said, there isn't a right way to live, but I personally think that we should strive for improving what we can, with the little power over the world we are given and to avoid hurting and making other people's lives worse.

I already regret not doing the "meaningless" things I thought were a waste of time, like spending more time with my now deceased dog. I took for granted that he was alive, and never really spent nearly as much time as I wish I did, thinking that an hour of work was more important.

The thing is, I don't think spending time with loved ones (your dog for example) is meaningless, infact I think it's very meaningful.

I was not saying that spending time with my dog was meaningless, just that I prioritized my work, indirectly issuing "less" meaning to the time I spent with him. Either way, the past is the past, I can only go up from here.

I was not saying that spending time with my dog was meaningless

Sorry, I'm a bit stupid.

just that I prioritized my work, indirectly issuing "less" meaning to the time I spent with him.

I understand how sometimes we can't realise how much we'll regret something until afterwards.

Tbh I'm not sure lol. Personally I've struggled with a lot of mental health issues since I was young so I'm finding it hard to say whether we should live life to its fullest or just accept the feeling of finally feeling ok. What do you consider meaningless btw?

Since reading some other comments, I don't know what is meaningless anymore, I now think that you could find meaning in everything if you looked.

I think rephrasing the original would do better, it should probably be about living a fulfilling life without harming others and not ignoring good opportunities because you think you should wait until the perfect time that'll never come.

However this ignores unavoidable pain that we all get in some way or another, in your case mental health, so I'm still not sure what would be a good way to live, as we aren't always in a decent enough position to take up the kind of opportunities I said earlier.

try to meet with or call everyone i love and tell them how much i love them

Nothin. Anything I'd want to do would cost money, and money is the thing I dont have.

Maybe speed things along if nothing else.

we don't need money, just credit. It's not like we'll need to pay it off.

You got 24 hours left to live. You aint getting no credit anywhere fast enough to use before the end of the day.

Yeah, I would just chill and ignore everyone's requests.

Stop worrying. Maybe go out to eat tonight.

Yeah, this would be it. All of my future worries and duties have suddenly been wiped away! Just gonna take it chill and wait for the release.

Well im on the other side of the country from my wife. Also 8 hours from the nearest airport to get home.

I think i wouls drive the great Australian bite and write out my feelings and how much i love mt wife and friends, then sit on the bottom of Australia and watch the sun set off those cliffs then set the text to send after i die, (since i cant tell anyone ahead of time)

It would be lonely but i think cathartic too, just a chance to decompress from the world before the forever sleep

Tell my kids I love them, update my will, go to the redwood forest, and walk until I died.

What if walking into the redwood forest is what causes your death? You would've lived if you stayed home and played video games instead of going into the forest and getting mauled by a bear

I would actually take the question at face value, and take it as I'd die no matter what I do

Triple-check that our mortage is paid off in the event of my death, so that my wife and children will have a place to live after I (sole breadwinner) am gone.

Keep browsing.

Honestly why not? You'll be dead, what does it matter what you do in your final hours? I'd just carry on as was. If you're religious, then death is just the next step, and your last day won't mean much. If you're not, you're about to cease existing, what would it matter to you then.

Just relax, eat chips, and doom scroll your way to death

Just relax, eat chips, and doom scroll your way to death

But Lemmy is down.

Celebrate, make sure there’s some legal framework for all my stuff to go to my younger brothers and then probably drink/smoke/do whatever drugs I can find to make the last few hours as nice as possible.

I lost the will to keep fighting a long time ago. I’m not actively hoping for death, but it’s not something I’d be unhappy about encountering.

Why can’t I tell anyone? Would they kill me if I did?

@jackpot @asklemmy I'd just do what I normally do but make sure to leave behind a detailed list of what to do with my weebshit when gone.

...its going to be weird dying at work...

Finally start smoking pipe tobacco. I've been putting it off as I'm sure it will give me mouth cancer.

Probably the same I do already. Stare into one of the glowing rectangles in my home, waiting for it to end and being happy that I didn't selfishly put more humans into this grinder.

I would give my money, which isn't much, to my family straight away.

I would spend my last day with them, leave some nice messages to friends (the ones I care for like family are just too far away).

I would cancel all my clients

I think that's it

I'd get in the car and start driving. I'd go and have the conversation I've been afraid to have for years

... or I'd be paralyzed with fear like I've been for the rest of my life.

... or if I'm being honest, I'd most likely grab a bottle of tequila, fall off the wagon, and find out what I actually want to do that way.

I'd try to figure out a way to stop it from happening.

Probably the most realistic answer...
Now I'm going to go watch Crank. Again.

First, I wouldn't tell anyone I was going to die, but I'd go see everyone who is important to me. Even if it was insanely inconvenient for them, I'd do it and tell them I love them. I'm sure it will make all of them angry I didn't say "I'll be dead in 24hrs" but that's now how I want to go out. Everyone crying and blah blah blah. Am I getting on your nerves because you love me but the new born is crying and I showed up unannounced? I know and that's okay. I'll probably smile fondly, give them a big hug and tell them I'll see them when I can. Then I'd get home and start writing. I'd write as much to every person I needed to. If I had anything to say at all, I'd say it. A lot of apologizing and explaining why I didn't say anything but I'd definitely put in a "if you feel bad by the way you acted towards me the last time we saw each other, fuck you. I don't remember being required to consider your feelings about my death. I went out the way I wanted, and I gave you one last memory of me being me. Not everyone standing around being an asshole and crying on everything." Then would elaborate in detail to each one individually what I will remember about them. What I want them to remember about me and who I was. Probably write about the good and the bad, but remind them every other paragraph they have nothing to feel bad for, that I know they loved me and I didn't say anything because I wanted my last time with them to be normal. It would take the majority of the time I have left. Then, idk. Probably depending on my mood in the hours before, I may go find somewhere secluded with a good view or pick one person and tell them so I don't have to go out alone. That one I don't think any person can say for sure till it happened. Hell, I might say fuck it and find anyone I can so I don't go out alone. But I've already faced some of this reality once and writing was the thing that I felt I needed to do most. To explain anything and everything. Don't leave anything up for debate or question. They will all have all the answers to all the questions within days of my death. No wondering this or feeling guilty for that.

answrrs so far: sex, walking, browsing, play with my kids.

  • Eat every dish that I ever wanted to. I am a foodie but the issue is we're poor
  • Masturbate in the open. I always had a fetish for exhibitionism. Or even better have sex (if I manage get a girl)
  • Swim in a luxury pool

make sure no. 2 doesnt get seen by anyone

Being seen by others is the point of exhibitionism, right? So yes, I want to be watched, preferrably people who know me like family and neighbours

so youre telling me the only thing stopping you from exposing yourself to others is consequences, ethics be damned

So yes, I want to be watched, preferrably people who know me like family

So your final act before dying is getting off on having your grandpa watching you jerk off?

I would spend the day with my loved ones reminding them of what great people they are and then passing with dignity. I do not fear death because the Buddhist philosophy taught me to embrace the here and now. Yesterday already happened and tomorrow is not a given. Today matters.

steal someone’s credit card and go buy a bunch of weed (it’s legal here). after also eating a great meal, I’d go get high in Central Park and just walk around, enjoying the views until I died.

the person would report the card stolen and get the (relatively small) charges stricken/refunded, so I’m not worried about the ethics of that.

As funny as it is to make fun of you and your 7 alt accounts this comment is actually concerning. Please visit your friends and family in real life more.

no clue what you’re talking about… you seem to be imagining things

I'm serious. Please talk to your friends and family.

seek help

edit: oh, it’s a hexbear troll...