What would you do if you had 15 minutes to live?
I have just this minute meandered into my living room to find my son watching The Simpsons movie. I am fond of the Simpsons and managed to catch a 2 minute clip which was rather profound.
As the 'Dome'(if you are not familiar with the film I apologise)descends upon Springfield the congregation of the church rush out onto the street, at the same as the patrons of Mo's bar. Then they swap. Church goers stampeding into the bar to sample some of what they have been missing, and the drinkers rushing into the church to make peace with their maker.
We always want what we haven't had.
I was bought up in a a STRICT (did I emphasise that enough) Christian household where worldly pleasures were frowned on and Shloer was dished up with Sunday lunch in most 'Delph' households. No wine, oh no no no. I now have a hunger for all that is forbidden eg socialising with 'the world', having sex outside of marriage, paganism, studying psychological matters (work of the devil) and general 'wild, free child' experiences.
The reverse is true - the few adult converts that I have known have usually had many years of riotous living in true prodigal son style (drink, drugs, prostitutes etc) and seek to find peace within a religious community, away from the sins of the streets (so to speak).
Perhaps that is just how it is. I know I had to do my unfinished business to find happiness. Unfinished business being the opposite of my originally enforced value system. The shadow has to be experienced and embraced (and bloody well enjoyed)to find contentment.
So what about the last 15 minutes?
What would you do? Pub or Church?
I think I would opt for either deep trance (if I was alone) or complete union with a partner (if I wasn't).
Either way I would want to feel at peace, at one, merged with the universe. No anxiety. No regret. Just there in the moment.
11 comments:
I think there have probably been a number of musings on this kind of thing in the build up to the switching on of the Large Hadron Collider: someone in my art group (it feels good to be able to say that) was really worried about it, I said look, if I thought the world was going to end on Wednesday, I'd be down the pub now.
So I suppose that's my default (if less-than-sophisticated) answer to that one.
Something else chimed with me in this post too. Long ago I'd realised that the real rebels at school - by which I mean the ones pushing boundaries, testing out authority, flouting rules and so on (as opposed to merely being undisciplined louts!) seemed to be the first ones to have settled down with kids and steady, fairly straightforward lives. Or at least that's how it appeared, enough for there to be more than a grain of truth there. I suppose that they'd got something out of their system, and maybe found out a little more where they wanted to be as a result.
Me, I had a foot in both camps, and so still have a sense of ambivalence which is simultaneously liberating and crippling.
So would I really go to the pub for the end of the world? I think I'd want a few drinks and then go and find a vantage point somewhere - whether alone or in company..
I would like to be on a sunny beach, playing and teasing happily with Bobo and the boys.
I would want to be absolutely oblivious to the end of the world, fully alive and then gone.
If I knew it was going to happen, I doubt I could conceive of sensible to do in the time I had. Most likely, I would freeze in sheer shock. That's why I would rather not know.
I'd drink and smoke. It's not like it would hurt my health then.
Okay...my answer depends on if our children were around at the time or not. If they were then I would want to do lots of hugging as a family, if they wern't then I would want to have sex over and over and over until the end.
DJ - I so agree with both those sentiments.
Hi there, love your blog, added to my google reader. Pleased to 'meet' you!
~doffs cap~
DK
Trousers: You are just wonderful!
Hull: Being oblivious is important but its like oblivious with knowledge. Only with knowledge can we fully take the moment
Lyn: Amen! I would stuff my face with something or other - as well as being in deep trance. How wonderful to be totally liberated from all that guilt shit!
dj: Yep absolutely. Totally agree.
dk: Hey! You - brilliant. Thanks for stopping by my blog. I keep trying to add you to my blog list but its saying there is no 'feed' and I cant. Got to find some way of getting a link from my blog!
~chuckles~ thanks QV, hey try http://dk-leather.blogspot.com instead of my own url of www.dkleather.co.uk - the feed hides there :-) Glad the desire to add is mutual!
~doffs cap~
DK x
It certainly is hehehe just about to try. Thanks for the tip - tugs forelock.
Being with my sons.
Being with my friends
Being alone in a beautiful place
In that order.
xx
Interesting perspective. I grew up in a Catholic household but have strayed from that faith into a different spiritual path. While I still believe much of what was instilled in me, I apply it far differently than I would have ever imagined.
So where would I be in the last 15 minutes? Probably much like you, I'd be sitting quietly focused only on that moment in time.
If I were in the pub, I'd stay in the pub. If I were in a church, I'd wonder whatthefuck I was doing there!
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