'Memento Mori (Remember your death)' Everyone will face death someday. It may feel distant and unfamiliar, but it is something that will inevitably happen. This book talks about such death. It contains 200 questions about death. Questions like what to write in a will, what kind of funeral you want, what you would do if you could postpone death by a month, how to spend a long illness, and how you want to be remembered help you seriously plan ‘the last moments of the life you want.’ It also shares stories about statistics on death, dignified death, infectious diseases, roadkill, animal testing, terrorism, war, caregiving robots, and more.
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If you are living a life with no regrets even if you die anytime, this book may not be very helpful. But if you are living today with regrets, worrying about suddenly leaving the world tomorrow due to an accident, or if such days keep repeating, this book will surely help you. Life is a long journey. On that path, we face ‘today’s death’ every day and meet a tomorrow we have never lived before. I hope this book accompanies your regret-free today. - p.10, from 「Author’s Note」
You just finished a biometric test, and the doctor diagnosed your expected lifespan as 150 years. Upon hearing this news, are you happy or sad? - p.28, from 「What if you could live to 150?」
Time is the most equitable inheritance given to everyone. If you live to 80, one-third of that time will be spent sleeping, and half of the remaining time will be spent working. That leaves 27 years. On average, 7 years are spent eating, 5 years on the road, 3 years waiting for something, 1 year going to the bathroom, and 177 days brushing teeth. So, how much of this time have you lived according to your own will? How much time have you focused on your life as when watching your favorite drama or movie? How many times have you personally cooked food for someone you love? How often have you voluntarily done something without being asked? Those times piled up layer by layer to make who you are now. Before you close your eyes, if you combine the most meaningful moments, how many years, months, days, or hours of your 80 years would they occupy? - p.38, from 「How much time have you lived purely by your own will?」
Most elderly people fall into two categories: difficult or peaceful. Which one are you? Try expressing the image of your happy old age in one adjective or verb. Do you want to be a cute grandmother doing hula hoop, a kind grandfather who listens to others, or an elderly person who never loses style at any moment? As you approach death, what kind of person do you want to be? - p.57, from 「What kind of elderly person do you want to be?」
The accident happened in an instant. A traffic accident that anyone could experience happened to you. You collapsed there, and your consciousness left your body. You look down at your leg, broken and covered in blood. Your consciousness rapidly passes through a spiral tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, your mother who passed away earlier is waiting to greet you. Behind her is a dazzling scene and warm light you have never seen before. Your mother reaches out her hand, as if saying, ‘You’ve suffered enough, come here.’ You have never died before, but you can feel it. If you take this hand, you will truly die. At that moment, a voice is heard: “Snap out of it!” Someone slaps your cheek hard. You faintly see paramedics struggling below the tunnel of consciousness to save you. Even if you survive, you will live a completely different life, confined to a wheelchair. But you can live. Will you take your mother’s hand or not? - p.100, from 「Are you willing to live with an uncomfortable body?」
The people gathered at your funeral will mourn your death for their own reasons. If you died alone, they will say, ‘What a pity, you died without marrying.’ If you were married, they will say, ‘What will your spouse or children do now?’ If you died earlier than others, they will say, ‘You left without enjoying this good world.’ If you died of old age, they will say, ‘You suffered all your life in this harsh world.’ Which of these words would you least want to hear? - p.174, from 「What is the thing you least want to hear at your funeral?」
Death is everywhere. You could die from a bee sting while visiting ancestral graves, slip on a wet floor after a shower and die instantly at home, or be struck by a falling signboard in the middle of a windy street during the day. But no one thinks such things will happen to them. That is why death is sudden for everyone. If you were to die tomorrow from such an accident, what would you regret the most? If you could postpone death by a month, what would you want to finish? - p.206, from 「If you could postpone death by a month, what would you do?」
You just arrived in a foreign country, leaving your hometown behind. You are on the verge of completing a project you have prepared for the past two years. If you successfully finish the presentation tomorrow evening as planned, it will be a significant project that benefits both your career and your company. You lie down to calm your mind and sleep, but then the phone rings. You receive news that your mother is critically injured in a sudden traffic accident. The trembling voice tells you she is unconscious and may pass away soon in the worst case. Will you take the fastest flight to be by your mother’s side during her final moments, or will you finish your presentation tomorrow evening first and then return? - p.229, from 「Mother’s final moments vs. important presentation」
On your way back from visiting a grandmother who is about to die, a child holding your hand tightly asks with sparkling eyes, “Why do people die? I don’t want to die.” How would you explain death to the child? Would you say it’s just a temporary farewell and that you will meet again in heaven, so don’t be sad? Would you tell them that everyone dies, so we must cherish our one and only life? Would you say that even if people disappear from this world, they live forever in the hearts of loved ones? Or would you postpone the explanation, saying you will tell them when they grow up? Among religious, rational, emotional, and avoidant approaches to death, which way would you choose to explain it? - p.247, from 「How would you explain death to a child?」
Studying on time, getting a job, marrying, having children, retiring. People say “You are living well” as if casting a spell when someone properly fulfills the roles assigned at each life stage. How much do you think fulfilling these life tasks is actually related to quality of life? Have you lived a life properly fulfilling the tasks assigned at each stage? Looking back on your life before death, which stage would you regret the most? Would that regret be about a life too bound by tasks, or about a life too neglectful of tasks? - p.279, from 「What is the standard of living well?」
Today’s Death Q&A | Written by Hong Ji-hye | Hyundai Intelligence | 312 pages | 18,000 KRW
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