11 min
17. How To Be A Person - A Walk With the Man With the Scythe The Bold Acting Podcast
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- Self-Improvement
Thank you to the paying customers, you golden few that have upgraded to paid. I really appreciate you. Do you pay for other newsletters? If so what makes it worth it? I’ve included a poll here for paid subscribers. I’d love to know what you think and how I can make BOLD better.
This is an excerpt from my upcoming book: Be Bold ‘Cause You’re Going to Die. (When it comes out you have only one choice: buy in bulk. I have your email address. I’ll know if you only buy one. I’m dying okay? So you better heed me.)
In Ian MacEwan’s novel Amsterdam one man takes his terminally ill frenemy to progressive Amsterdam to have him euthanized.
In the Denis Arcand film The Barbarian Invasions Remy, the cancer-ridden protagonist retreats to the countryside with his friends before getting Marie-Josée Croze to inject him with heroin until he is dead.
In The Last Doctor a man in chronic pain sits in his SRO hoping for Death but he has no friends or family to help him. Until a rebellious MAID doctor (Medical Assistance in Dying) comes along and saves his death.
Everyone wants to know how to have a good life. This should include a good death.
I think the answer is: Swing for the fences ‘cause life is short. Swing every day. Don’t get angry with yourself if you strikeout. Home-run hitters strike out a lot. Just keep aiming for that fence.
This book is really just a post-it note to myself. Keep trying stuff, Jason. Don’t go and get a job. You weren’t meant for that and besides, you’d be a terrible employee.
I have died 52 years. That’s 52 years I’ll never see again. Those 52 years are gone. What have I done with them? Enter: Rampant Rationalization. No, no J.B. you’ve done a lot, I hear you say. You’ve helped whelp two functioning children. You’ve managed to maintain a much leveraged position within the lower-middle class. You haven’t killed the cat yet.
These are true facts and it would add up to accomplishment but for the relativism (everyone around me has also not killed their cat) that reminds me the real yardstick is elsewhere.
In Margaret Drabble’s short story The Merry Widow a woman goes on a vacation her domineering husband had planned. He had done her the immeasurable kindness of dying prior to take-off. At her B&B she sees an old man cutting the grass next door with a scythe and thinks it must be Death calling for her. But it turns out to be Father Time. Death shows up as a skeleton. This was “only Time, Time friendly, Time continuing, Time healing… And when he had finished cutting the grass he had gone harmlessly away, leaving her in possession of herself, of her place, of her life.”
She breathed deeply. The sap began to flow. She felt it flow in her veins.
All at once the stakes are high and there’s no need to worry. Worrying doesn’t help but it does hurt. I want to be mindful of my impending doom so I can prioritize. Sometimes I can do it. Sometimes not.
Places I’ve Succeeded in Prioritizing in the Face of Death:
- I don’t reply to emails or texts if I don’t have to. I just delete them. I don’t care anymore. If you message me and I don’t reply it is not because I think you’re a terrible person. It’s just because I’m busy walking with death.
- I don’t hang-out with people I don’t like. I used to do it regularly. I’ve wasted a lot of other people’s time over the years being nice. Niceness is a waste of a life.
- I try not to spend a minute on shyness. I try to talk to strangers but being rather introverted I find it stressful. Nothing ever happens to scaredy-cats sitting in the corner.
- I don’t get in my car unless completely unavoidable. I’d rather be scared for my life on my bike than angry and behind the wheel.
- I don’t go to sporting events unless it’s soccer. (A seventh inning stretch? Are you joking? That should be the end of the bloody game!)
- I am a solitary man. This means I don’t have to maintain a romantic relationship with a woman. Thi
Thank you to the paying customers, you golden few that have upgraded to paid. I really appreciate you. Do you pay for other newsletters? If so what makes it worth it? I’ve included a poll here for paid subscribers. I’d love to know what you think and how I can make BOLD better.
This is an excerpt from my upcoming book: Be Bold ‘Cause You’re Going to Die. (When it comes out you have only one choice: buy in bulk. I have your email address. I’ll know if you only buy one. I’m dying okay? So you better heed me.)
In Ian MacEwan’s novel Amsterdam one man takes his terminally ill frenemy to progressive Amsterdam to have him euthanized.
In the Denis Arcand film The Barbarian Invasions Remy, the cancer-ridden protagonist retreats to the countryside with his friends before getting Marie-Josée Croze to inject him with heroin until he is dead.
In The Last Doctor a man in chronic pain sits in his SRO hoping for Death but he has no friends or family to help him. Until a rebellious MAID doctor (Medical Assistance in Dying) comes along and saves his death.
Everyone wants to know how to have a good life. This should include a good death.
I think the answer is: Swing for the fences ‘cause life is short. Swing every day. Don’t get angry with yourself if you strikeout. Home-run hitters strike out a lot. Just keep aiming for that fence.
This book is really just a post-it note to myself. Keep trying stuff, Jason. Don’t go and get a job. You weren’t meant for that and besides, you’d be a terrible employee.
I have died 52 years. That’s 52 years I’ll never see again. Those 52 years are gone. What have I done with them? Enter: Rampant Rationalization. No, no J.B. you’ve done a lot, I hear you say. You’ve helped whelp two functioning children. You’ve managed to maintain a much leveraged position within the lower-middle class. You haven’t killed the cat yet.
These are true facts and it would add up to accomplishment but for the relativism (everyone around me has also not killed their cat) that reminds me the real yardstick is elsewhere.
In Margaret Drabble’s short story The Merry Widow a woman goes on a vacation her domineering husband had planned. He had done her the immeasurable kindness of dying prior to take-off. At her B&B she sees an old man cutting the grass next door with a scythe and thinks it must be Death calling for her. But it turns out to be Father Time. Death shows up as a skeleton. This was “only Time, Time friendly, Time continuing, Time healing… And when he had finished cutting the grass he had gone harmlessly away, leaving her in possession of herself, of her place, of her life.”
She breathed deeply. The sap began to flow. She felt it flow in her veins.
All at once the stakes are high and there’s no need to worry. Worrying doesn’t help but it does hurt. I want to be mindful of my impending doom so I can prioritize. Sometimes I can do it. Sometimes not.
Places I’ve Succeeded in Prioritizing in the Face of Death:
- I don’t reply to emails or texts if I don’t have to. I just delete them. I don’t care anymore. If you message me and I don’t reply it is not because I think you’re a terrible person. It’s just because I’m busy walking with death.
- I don’t hang-out with people I don’t like. I used to do it regularly. I’ve wasted a lot of other people’s time over the years being nice. Niceness is a waste of a life.
- I try not to spend a minute on shyness. I try to talk to strangers but being rather introverted I find it stressful. Nothing ever happens to scaredy-cats sitting in the corner.
- I don’t get in my car unless completely unavoidable. I’d rather be scared for my life on my bike than angry and behind the wheel.
- I don’t go to sporting events unless it’s soccer. (A seventh inning stretch? Are you joking? That should be the end of the bloody game!)
- I am a solitary man. This means I don’t have to maintain a romantic relationship with a woman. Thi
11 min