You Will Die Exactly One Year from Today

...how are you going to spend the year?

Yeah.  It's a morbid thought.  December 31, 2017, you won't wake up from your nap.  You will cease to function.  Maybe you go to an afterlife of some sort.  Maybe you ascend as cosmic energy and rejoin the universe or become reincarnated as a dog or something.  Hell, maybe you just switch off like a gadget without a battery.

Now, think.  What do you want this year to be for yourself?

The hedonist will choose to drink and fuck and get high and eschew all concepts of anything but having a good goddamn time.

The activist will focus all her energy on helping others at the expense of family and friends.

The artist will create art.  Lots of it.  Tons of it.  And likely not worry about the commerce part.

The fact remains that most of our time in this year will be spent on unimportant bullshit.  Most of our time between now and December 31, 2017 will be spent pursuing a buck to pay bills for things we don't need or don't improve our lives or the lives of anyone else.  Some of the spacial real estate will be spent on distractions from that.  A bit more will be utilized for petty disputes and unresolved issues with people you didn't need in the first place.

So spend five minutes on the question.

What do you want your legacy to be?

"The Literate Ape was a selfish guy.  He spent a lot of time smoking weed and drinking booze and sleeping a lot.  His love of spending hours in front of the television and playing videogames was prolific.  He was a fun guy, though.  Not terribly reliable but, man, was he the life of the party!"

"The Literate Ape was a focused guy.  He worked ALL the time.  He paid rent to a number of apartments and paid his bills on time (mostly).  He had accounts with AT&T, ComEd, Netflix, HBO Go, Peoples Gas, VISA, and showed up on time to most of his work days."

"The Literate Ape was a regular guy.  He survived.  He ate some.  Slept some.  He paid some bills.  Went to some shows.  He was the perfect example of average.  Didn't take a lot of chances and was very reasonable in his approach to risks."

It's the only thing that unites us - black, white, Christian, Atheist, pro-Trump, anti-Trump, straight, gay, trans - the simple reality that we all are dying from second one.

I've been ruminating a lot lately on what I'd like my year to be - who I spend my time with, things I'd like to accomplish, places I want to travel to with my ceaselessly amazing wife.  With George Michael kicking things to the dust at 53, my Gen X agelessness is starting to fade like a pair of stonewashed jeans I bought in 1993.  I have no foggy clue where I'll be in five years, so looking forward to the coming year seems about right.

What are you going to do with your year?  And when the fuck are you going to start?