RSSThoughts on shuffling
Feb 17
Uncategorized death speaks in all caps, discworld, wolcottsian diatribe Comments Off
Excellent essay by James Wolcott in the latest issue of Vanity Fair on the subject of death and the baby boomer.
Slipping off the mortal coil is no excuse for slacking off. Only in America could the prospect of dying be promoted as a motivational tool to rack up frequent-flier miles. Bookstores and Web sites abound in self-help guides listing the 10 (or 100, or 1,000) things and places you must do and visit before you die (there’s even a 100 Birds to See Before You Die catalogue), as if life were a race through the supermarket aisle to grab as many experiences off the shelves as possible before collapsing at the checkout line.
I’ve not often contemplated my own mortality, but Wolcott presents an interesting discussion of the business not of dying, but of facing one’s own impending death. As a writer myself, it was a good reminder not to get too wrapped up in one’s own importance and wisdom. Read the piece in its entirety.
And, because no one knows death better than the tall, dark, and cowled man himself:
“PEOPLE’S WHOLE LIVES DO PASS IN FRONT OF THEIR EYES BEFORE THEY DIE. THE PROCESS IS CALLED ‘LIVING’.” ~Death in Terry Pratchett’s Last Continent