Sorry to talk about death and all again, but the way she discusses and understands death is interesting and we all have something to learn from it.
Death was always on my mind. It brought clarity to my life. It reminded me of the people I want to love well, the type of person I want to become, and the things I want to do. But I struggled to maintain this perspective. It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and forget what really matters to me. I wondered if other people felt the same way.
[…]
Death is something we’re often discouraged to talk about or even think about. … Perhaps that is why it took me so long to explore these thoughts, but when I finally did, I found a comfort and clarity that I did not expect. Beyond the tragic truth of mortality lies a bright calm that reminds me of my place in the world. When I think about death, the mundane things that stress me out are reduced to their small and rightful place; the things that matter most to me become big and crisp again. … Thinking about death clarifies your life.
With a simple question, while utilizing public space, Chang unleashes a public discourse on the complexity, but simultaneously the simplicity of humankind.
Before I die I want to...:
enjoy life.
go back to school
be the next Oprah
I want to become an artist
read
forgive
be loved.
Chang created a canvas of anonymity that allows for this sort of vulnerability and creativity to come to the surface. Something so simple brings us to our knees, and things that matter most are 'big and crisp again.'
She open's her book with one of the most brilliant quotes by Carl Sagan:
We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers.As Maria Popova writes:
But in a wonderfully paradoxical way, the project both embodies and counters this sentiment: The question at its heart isn’t particularly “courageous,” nor are the majority of the answers particularly “deep,” but the combination produces something profound and deeply human, and that’s precisely the point: What makes the world significant — more than that, what makes “the aggregate of our joy and suffering” significant — is perhaps the simplicity and sincerity of our answers to the simplest and most sincere of questions.Utilizing public space to encourage public discourse.
Chang writes:
Our public spaces are as profound as we allow them to be. They are our shared spaces and reflect what matters to us as a community and as individuals. … At their greatest, our public spaces can nourish our well-being and help us see that we’re not alone as we try to make sense of our lives. They can help us grieve together and celebrate together and console one another and be alone together. Each passerby is another person full of longing, anxiety, fear, and wonder. With more ways to share in public space, the people around us can not only help us make better places, they can help us become our best selves.Shit. Too bad more officials running our cities, states and countries are blind to this reality.
Read Maria Popova's whole article HERE.
