Permission Based Dying, er, Living

I had to listen to yet another "guru" ask the group to list all the things they would do if they only had six months to live. (I came up with one. Keep doing what I'm doing now. But - I digress.)



People were writing furiously. There may have been surprises had I been able to look but I'm guessing they were mostly all about relationships or finally taking that long wanted trip to Hawaii.



Then of course the inevitable follow up. Why aren't you doing that right now?



Sigh.



I 100% believe it's because we would not be given the permission of our community to do so.  Life is only precious to most people when there is a danger of dying. Otherwise it's labeled irresponsible or worse.



Consider the following situations.



Single woman with no kids decides to hike through Europe alone.   High school          sports star says enough is enough and doesn't join the team that desperately              needs him.  Highly paid married couple decides to chuck the rat race and start a        bed and breakfast in the middle of nowhere.



There would howls of dismay and anger.  What are they thinking?  Don't they see how crazy this is?  Their future is at risk.  Wah wah wah wah



Now preface each sentence with "After discovering s/he has a year to live...".   Ah that's better.



Is this really what we want for ourselves and others?  I wonder.  How scary would it be to discover that by giving others permission to live fully and freely we would be able to do that ourselves?



Permission based dying or permission based living?  Something to ponder in the waning days of 2010.

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