Sell by Date

I ask you to bear with me on this one, this will probably sound like I have finally lost the last marble in my bag and slipped into an alternate reality filled with padded wallpaper and men in long white coats and clipboards.

Over recent weeks and months a few people around me have sadly slipped off this mortal coil and passed onto whatever awaits us on the other side of Death’s door. There have also been a number of deaths or terminal illness reported in the News of various celebrities and famous faces, all of which has made me ponder the thought of how we live our lives and what we would do differently if we knew the exact date and time of our own flames being extinguished.

Now this is where you will need to unshackle your beliefs and understanding of this life and just go with me on this. What if, and I realise it’s a big WHAT IF, but what if when each of us were born we came with a “sell by date” if you like printed on us?
A date and time that our life would end.
A definite.
Not a “well it might be around the mid 50’s”. No “ums” or “ers”. No scratching of chins in ponderment. But a clear cut, absolute, this is exactly when you will be leaving us. No other details. Nothing detailing how or where you will die. Just a date and time.

What would we do?

What wouldn’t we do?

Would you now live life to its fullest, cherish every moment, stop all the arsing about at the weekend with the lads and find that perfect partner and settle down to have kids? Live the whole two point four children modern family that we supposedly live now or, would you go the other way? Carry on arsing about at the weekend, knowing you have plenty of time to settle down. Would you take more risks? You would know that if it wasn’t your date and time you could hurl yourself off the Sydney harbour bridge with only a piece of bungee between you and a possible very messy death or do we only do that because of the risk? The risky options are endless.
There would be no more “Heros” in this world. The lone soldier that returns to his wounded colleague in the midst of a terrifying fire fight would no longer receive a medal for his actions. He would have known there was no risk to him if it hadn’t been his date. He could have stood up in a bright pink tu-tu with a target emblazoned on it to retrieve his friend if he had known it was not his time.
I imagine life would not be all that different to what it is now. You would still have crime, drugs, murder and the various other evils in this life. Why wouldn’t you? People would still take drugs. Without the risk of death to make them stop and think that may have made them think twice before. Murder would still take place for the right person at the right time and date. Crime is generally committed to obtain financial gain which would still be an influence to some. None of that would change.
Wars would still take place. Terrorist atrocities would still be a part of our lives.
But what would the average Joe do. What would I have done differently or do differently? What would you do? Would you have grasped every opportunity? Would you be more open to the ones you love? Not holding back for fear of embarrassment or lose of face? Would you in essence, live life to its fullest?
Inhibitions would be lost on one hand but on the other recluses would still exist. Not wanting to get close to others for fear of losing them the next day. When you found the perfect someone would you check their sell by date before committing to them?
The list of what ifs is endless. Just scratching the darker realms of ones mind would people of the same date arrange to meet at their given times? Would there be record attempts to see if they could be the largest groups of dates and in fact deaths in one spot? But let’s not scratch that itch any further though…

I guess we are better of not knowing. Knowing that death is the only definite in this life is more than enough and not knowing where or when is for the best. But it does make you stop and think, or at least it did me. I guess it’s much the same as asking what you would do differently if you knew then what you know now?

Maybe I will cross this bridge again at some point but for now I will leave you with your thoughts and my mad ramblings rattling through your brains and the little voice in some dark recess that’s saying to you “Why did you start reading this, or more importantly why did you finish reading this?”