How Long Will You Live?

The world will end in just 8 days.

How would you feel if the news that you were going to die dropped from the sky tonight?

Last night my daughter invited me to watch a Netflix series with her called, “The Umbrella Academy”.

The premise of the show is that 43 children were born on one day to 43 different women around the world – despite the fact that none of these women were pregnant when they got up that morning.

A billionaire gentleman, fascinated by this phenomenon, set out to adopt as many of these children as he could so he could study them.

He adopted 7 kids in total and set about raising them in his NYC mansion.

Miraculously, 6 of the seven turned out to have super-powers.

One example was a boy called “Five” who could teleport and time-travel.

Eager to know the extent of his power, the boy asked his billionaire dad for permission to time travel into the future. The dad said time travel was fraught with serious and unpredictable perils and forbid the boy to do it.

Yep, you guessed it. Boys will be boys. He did it anyway.

Five was having a grand old time traveling back and forth
through time until his last surge into the future. Once there he saw his mansion home and the entire city in total ruin.

The Apocalypse had come. And his power to travel back through time could not be summoned.

He was stuck. Everyone was dead. Buildings were all in ruin.

Somehow he managed to survive there, alone, for 17 years.

Upon the death of his billionaire dad, Five’s powers mysteriously returned. He was able to get back in time to attend his dads funeral service with his siblings, who had wondered for 17 years where he went. He was MIA all that time.

Here’s the rub, and the point of all this chatter I’ve enticed you to suffer through.

The boy knows something now. He’s been to the future and he saw the date on the last newspaper there. The world will end, the Apocalyps comes, just 8 days from now.

Essentially, he’s got 8 days to figure out why the world ends and fix it, or everyone dies.

Which set me off on the tangent thought, which I asked my daughter…

If you knew you had 8 days to live, what would you do?

Of course there are two possible sceneros in play. Remember also, that you are the only one who knows this will happen.

1. You alone will die in 8 days, the rest of the world lives on.
2. You AND everyone else dies in 8 days

It’s interesting to work through the differing thoughts on that.

If everyone will die, thoughts of pillaging and plundering without recourse may come to mind. Go out with a bang! (pun intended). Or, you might choose to go a more decent, loving route and invite all your loved one’s together. Or travel to someplace you always wanted to visit. Cost be damned.

However, if just you will die, pillaging and plundering are probably out. The thought of leaving that horrible legacy is certainly not in my wheelhouse anyway. I don’t know about you, but I would like to be remembered well.

Thoughts then, might turn to getting one’s affairs in order, financially of course. And to probably getting in touch with friends and loved ones to share a final word or two or three. Maybe telling a special someone that you always loved them, though you could never summon the courage before?

Spending all the money on fun is certainly an option, which would only be mediated by how much I’d wish to leave the family upon my passing. Which assumes the scenario (1) where not all will die.

We’d all prefer not to think of our final hours here, but that often leads to chaos for the loved ones left behind, and the possibility of our not saying or doing the very things that matter most of all to us.

I’d wager you have more than 8 days left. Still, in all, you might spend a few moments of that time pondering your passing.

Would you really like to know when you’ll die?

Blue Zone founder Dan Buettner has a quick 3-minute longevity test on his website. It portends to predict how many years left you actually have to get your affairs in order.

If you’re not happy the life expectancy offered and would like more time to travel, hang out with loved ones, go fishing, or just dream of how you would pillage and plunder if you could, they also offer suggestions on simple lifestyle changes which can extend your life.

Right now they say I’ve got 20 more years to live. They’ve offered me 19 more if I’ll make some changes.

We’ll see.

If Elder keeps pissing me off with these various health issues, I might just do him in and check out early. (I’m kidding – of course – it’s my life’s mission to fight the Elder now, each day, for the rest of my days!)

However, if we can get these issues sorted (a British term I adore, meaning “fixed”) I’d love the opportunity to spend 39 more years hurling through space on this big, blue orb we call Earth.

I’ve got plenty of things I’d love to do and try yet! Including writing more crazy issue posts like this to inspire and entertain you!

How about you? What’s your thoughts on all this?

“Bene Vivere!”

Elderbob and The Younger Bob