What if....?

You know, I'm not sure this world is in good hands.

In a reflective moment, I was wondering what I'd do if I had only 24 hours left on earth and knew it. I wasn't being deep. A much younger co-worker in a job it usually takes years to work up to, but got it because he's young and works cheap, had asked me a really dumb question. And I was feeling frustrated by my limited diabetic diet. I pretty much know what I would do, but it made me curious. What would other people do if they had only 24 hours left?

So, I googled the question and read several sites. Then I was goggled, if that's a word, by what I found.

Granted, most people who post blogs and respond to stuff like this are young people who are more computer savvy and have more time on their hands. Maybe it's because they haven't lived long enough to achieve any measurable depth, or maybe they were just being smart-asses as young people can be, but I found their responses dismaying.

Many responded they'd go sky diving without a parachute. Or they'd steal a car and go out in a flaming crash. You got 24 hours; you're going to die at the end of it, why hasten it so painfully?

Predictably some said they'd party hard, get drunk or stoned, and be wild and crazy.

Many said they'd go on stealing and killing rampages; some said they'd rape every woman they could. Where is all this anger coming from? I found that chilling.

One was honest: "I'd wallow in self pity." What a waste of a day.

Another said he/she would "say all the things I wanted to say, good or bad." Silly kid. When you get to be older, you do that anyway. Besides, 24 hours to say a lifetime of what you've always wanted to say isn't enough.

Some said they'd travel as far as they could. Obviously they have no experience with waiting in an airport or rush hour traffic; they wouldn't get far in 24 hours. Can we say anticlimactic?

Maybe they're just too young to realize how important it is to make the most of a day. In other words, why wait until it's your last day on earth to tell people you love them, make your peace with your enemies, and try to earn brownie points into heaven?

What would I do if I had only a day left? I know what I wouldn't do: unlike the people I found on the web, I wouldn't steal money to give it away, or max out my credit cards for useless items to give to friends. Let them get their own stuff.

Nor would I be as altruistic, and as poetic, as the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King who said, "Even if I knew that tomorrow would go to pieces, I'd still plant an apple tree today."

I got one day left on this earth, I'm gonna put on some baggy sweats and eat my way out of a bakery; jelly doughnuts, look out!