The Get Low List

A little something to ponder...

After a Movie Madness viewing of the great film Get Low (about a man who wanted to celebrate his life and have his funeral before he died - to "get low" is to be buried, to get six feet under, not Getting Low on the dance floor, although there has been a lot of that lately) and a recent ten hour long Diva road trip to San Diego, some of us decided that we should spread the word about what we want to happen to us when we're gone. We figure that our husbands, significant others and children probably aren't the best ones to handle these things - that it's the girlfriends that need to know. Plus, the pre-getting low party sounded like so much fun.

Remember - It's not about the dates on the tombstone - it's all about the dash.

So...give the following questions some thought, write down answers somewhere.

Buried or cremated?

Where would you like to be buried/ashes spread?
Religious (or not) requirements?

What type of funeral/wake/ceremony do you envision?

Theme song (what would be playing in a movie if you suddenly appeared onscreen?)

I'll go first...

Cremated

Camelback Mountain
Or not

Went to one in Bali once that would be perfect.

U2 One

The Dash

Just finished the book A Walk on the Beach. Quick, pretty sappy read, but some powerful moments. The main character runs into a new friend "Joan" while...get this...walking on the beach. Turns out that Joan is Joan Erikson, wife of the famous psychologist Erik Erikson (one of the guys that really made sense to me in college) who wrote about the developmental stages in life. As Joan neared the end of her life, and after having watched her husband pass away, she realized that the last stage isn't just about having wisdom and possibly regret (as she and Erik originally thought) but that it is about a constant search for new information, new experiences, new and interesting people and activities. She talked about "the dash" - that it's not important what the dates are on a tombstone, it's what you do with the dash - fill up your life, all of the stages with new memories, do something different every day. So after a slow, quiet, pretty dashless Sunday here goes: Besides hanging around at the office - Monday - Movie Madness, Tuesday - yoga, Wednesday - lunch with high school friends recently found on Facebook, semi-retirement half-day Wednesday afternoon with Shawn, Mahjongg game at Carol's, Thursday - lunch with yoga guru, Mary, Book Club at Cecily's (where we probably won't talk about the book since we're so dashy), Friday - Happy Hour with the other Lisa and Sheila, Saturday - Lipstick Call with Laurel ------- dash, dash, dash, dash, dash, dash ------------------