This is going to sound really sick and twisted, perhaps a bit egotistical. However, an idea worth considering. Sit down for an hour today and craft your own obituary. Not a resume, the article you would want to appear in the online memorial notice. What would you write?
How long would it take you to write that? Would this be a painful exercise or rather easy for you? How in tune are you with your own life story. What elements would you focus on and highlight? Are there accomplishments you would call out? Is there a particular story you think is indicative of who you are? However, here is the big question…
Would you be happy with the outcome?
See here is the deal, I would be generally good with the story of my life so far. However, there is so much more that I would like it to say. So what am I doing about that? Am I just going to sit here and tick the days off the calendar or am I going to use some of these days to build another paragraph in the obituary?
What am I going to do with the rest of my dash?
Guy Reams
My father-in-law passed very recently. When we were sorting through his years of writings, tool collections, etc., we came across his hand written obituary. I had many of the standard items that obituaries include…work history, family members and the like. But he did put his own humorous spin on it, which was true to his normal wit. It was an obit worthy of a smile instead of tears. Quite a treasure!
Your father in law must have been a cool person to have spent the time on that. That is great to hear. My grandfather left a note for my grandmother on the way to the hospital the day that he died. That was pretty touching.