I was going to post another episode of the BrightCast today, but I’ve lost my voice. It’s bad enough that my work colleagues are laughing at my pathetic croaking, without exposing myself to the ridicule of the entire bloody ‘Net, so you’re gonna have to wait a few days till the sandpaper wielding gremlins have given up their attack on my larynx.
In the mean time, I have a question for you - what would you do if it was your last day on earth? *1*
In the office today we got talking today about it being the 6th day of the 6th month of the 6th year an all that jazz. Now, I’m such a lapsed Christian that I am pretty much approaching it from the other side, and none of us were too clear on the significance of the day, but we were all under the general impression that it wasn’t a good day. Birth of the anti-christ, general badness, that sort of thing.
So I got thinking about this whole superstition about numbers. Everyone says 13 is such an unlucky number - well, my brother was born on the 13th, so it wasn’t too bad for him (though through the years I might have cursed his birth a time or three. He is my older brother, after all, and was a right sod when we were growing up). As far as I’m concerned it’s not the date that’s significant, it’s the people. As Jack points out, 6th of June 1944 saw the beginning of the Allied invasion of Europe - if I have to remember a day, I’d far rather celebrate it because of something positive (as much as war ever can be positive), than fear it mainly because of a horror film has pushed a day into the zeitgeist.
Despite not actually believing the world was about to come to an end, one other thing we were all pretty certain on in the office was that, if this was to be the end of the world as we know it, none of us would choose to spend it making bus passes. Or in my case fighting the printer and our CMS - when it goes down (as it does, constantly) it’s our very own little doomsday scenario.
Whilst we knew what we wouldn’t want to do if it were to be the end of the world, thinking what we would want to do was surprisingly much harder. If you had just 24 little hours left… Well, you wouldn’t want to waste it, would you?
I was thinking of all the things I enjoy doing, trying to decide what I enjoyed most, and drew a blank. The weather today has been absolutely gorgeous, which made me think that, boring though it sounds, what I’d most like to do is to sit in the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey, basking in the sun, reading a book. Or maybe that teeny beach on the northern tip of Borneo we found that summer… I wouldn’t want to be talking necessarily, but I’d like for my family and friends to be around as well. What I’d most like is to be sitting to one side, watching them all have fun, knowing I could join in if I wanted to. Yeah. That sounds good to me.
So what how would you choose to spend your last day on Earth? The scenario isn’t that at the end of the 24 hours you are going to die horribly, or a giant asteroid is going to hit, or anything equally nasty. You are just gifted (as is everyone else) with the knowledge that in 24 hours things are going to end. Have a good think, as I am genuinely curious - how are your last hours going to be spent? Major party time? Confessing your sins? Getting married? Getting divorced? Doing that skydive you always promised yourself you would but never got around to? Or just having a normal day?
Endnotes:
*1*Now, the last time this question got posed to me was by a counsellor, who was asking me it in an effort to see what career I would like to do. My response then was “er, if I had a day left on earth, I’d be having fun, not thinking about a job!” As a side note, I didn’t go back to this particular lady - I think I lasted about 15 minutes before stalking out of the room in frustration. Silly woman. Back
Welcome to Bright Meadow. My name is Cas and I write every Sunday and Wednesday, frequently with other bits in between.
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