About Dying to Do It Right
Post 1006:
Perhaps it’s melodramatic, perhaps it’s plodding, perhaps it’s overlong, but I’ve always enjoyed Meet Joe Black. Let’s go ahead and say spoilers because this movie was made a billion years ago. (Like twenty or whatever) If you’ll allow me the chance to summarize, it’s about a wealthy and successful man who is told by Death himself that his time is up. Before he goes to the great beyond, though, Death (In the form of Brad Pitt) wants a little tour of our big beautiful world with the help of the wealthy and successful man. Apparently it’s adapted from a story called Death Takes a Holiday. Never read it. Reading is for losers and people that don’t do lots of push-ups. You know. Those types.
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From the outset I’ll say that I’ve always been a little morbid; therefore a film about croaking inherently fascinates me. It’s an interesting thought experiment—what we would do with the knowledge that the end is near.
I can’t answer the question except to say that I have a feeling the desire to really live would be pulled up to the forefront of your freaking consciousness. You’d want to say the things and do the things you should’ve done but never did because there was some bullcrap going on at the office or some cookies in the oven or whatever the hell type of living we fill our lives with on the daily.
So anyway, our main protagonist is about to die. We see him naturally working out what matters in the last few days of his life. What matters to this rich and successful fella? First, he’d like to leave behind a legacy of integrity and honesty. Ok. Pretty solid. Pretty understandable. I like it. He tells some guy trying to buy his company to go screw, though it gets a little complicated. Hey, plots gotta have problems, otherwise I don’t know what.
Second and most important, he needs to know his family is in good shape. He’s got two daughters and while they’re very different he loves them tons and wants them to know it, to be happy and healthy and thrive even though he can’t be there to see it.
Yeah, I know there’s some weird stuff in the movie. When your youngest daughter falls in love with Death, things can get a little strange, but what the hey. Put that aside. Or don’t. I kind of like the love story side of the movie. It’s different and sad, bittersweet and strange.
Ultimately, I go back to what matters most. To going out the right way, mind right and priorities clear. Legacy and family. These are sturdy pillars, not necessarily masculine but also totally masculine. Also, it strikes me that a life well lived for the right reasons will naturally kind of sort itself out at the end. If you practice integrity and love of family as a younger person, it’ll be an autopilot situation when the twilight hits.
Conversely, if you act like a jackass who doesn’t try to build anything or be good to others, you’ll probably go out with a whimper. No fireworks. The band won’t show up. No band or fireworks? That’ll suck.
Do I know what’s most important? That’s not even the point, knuckleheads. The point is to think about this stuff now and setting yourself straight before Brad Pitt visits you in the library and tells you you’re going to die. That. That’s the point. I rest my case. Live long and prosper.
Cheers and see you after.
