While You’re Alive
An art exhibit opened downtime a month or two ago featuring the art of Burning Man. I don’t have a lot of interest in Burning Man itself, but I am very interested in seeing Candy Chang’s piece called “Before I Die,” which is part of the exhibit.
The piece came out of a time in life when she was grappling with a loved one’s death:
She wanted to start a conversation, so she covered a crumbling house in her neighborhood in New Orleans with chalkboard paint and stenciled it with the prompt, “Before I die I want to _____,” so anyone walking by could pick up a piece of chalk, reflect on death and life, and share their personal aspirations in public.
Answering the question really becomes talking about life. What you want to do while you’re here on this planet. And the best part is that there are no wrong answers. Well… I mean… I guess if you said you aspire to pollute all the oceans before you die, people might feel that answer crosses the line. BUT almost everything else.
There are now 4000 Before I Die walls around the world, and you can click over to see pictures of the original one in New Orleans.
Before I die, I want to see how the twins turn out as adults. I want to visit the Faroe Islands. I want to give a TED Talk. I want to hold a puffin. (And I want the puffin to want to be held so it cuddles into the crook of my arm.) I want to take a class with Josh. I want someone to tell me that I’ve always reminded them of the title character from “Really Rosie.”
What do you want to do while you’re alive?
9 comments
Sounds like the kind of bucket list that Rosie (from Really Rosie) would have as an adult. Now I need to go listen to some Carole King.
I want to walk the Camino de Santiago with my husband and kids. To have muscle arms. To be practicing yoga every day. To travel to Italy. To be in the habit of kissing my husband every day.
I love your list!
I also want to know my children as adults. I also want to see Italy and Alaska and write a book.
I want to attend your TED talk. I’d like to go back to Alaska where I lived as a child and young adult. I’d like to visit my cousins in New Zealand. I want to visit Finland and the Czech Republic. I’d like to see my 13 yr old grandson as an adult. Most of all, I don’t want to have to evacuate for a hurricane EVER again.
Great list. I’d also like to meet your snuggling puffin! For me, before I die, I’d like to slow travel the world with DH, and without the need to return for a job/house/whatever. I’d like to feel that I’ve made a really positive difference in another human’s life. I’d also like to see our world become more tolerant and respectful, and for all humans to be able to exercise fundamental human rights.
What? The quokka didn’t make your list?
I want to be able to work from home or on the road. I want to live overseas again. I want to meet my blogging friends. I want to publish. I want to travel to new countries, and revisit favourite places and see the Aurora Borealis. I want women to be respected and treated as equals.
Though I think I have as much chance of that last one as you do of holding a happy puffin that wants to be held. And both those things make me sad. Oh, and also on my list is, I want to see, and photograph, the cutest puffin ever. (I was most upset that I didn’t get to see any in Iceland and Norway last year.)
Oh, I want you to do a TED Talk!
I like Mali’s list. And take our family to the great cities of Europe. And walk the Camino like Northern Star says. So many parts of the world I haven’t become familiar with yet.
I love this idea, and that you’re turning it around to “What I want to do while I’m alive” rather than “before I die.” We have a running bucket list as a couple that we came up with when children were no longer a part of our equation, and I think I need to revisit my own personal one, too. And I just hauled out my copy of “Reallly Rosie” (okay, not hauled out, it’s literally 3 feet from where I’m sitting) and YOU TOTALLY REMIND ME OF HER. And now that’s in my head. I also want to go to the Faroe Islands! I spent a lot of time this winter watching videos and the really awesome “Faroe Islands Sheep View” campaign to get Google Street View to come to the Faroe Islands. I think I need more international travel under my belt though, it sounded a bit on the tricky side. But worthy of doing while I’m alive, for sure. I would do my best to go see your TED Talk in person, and I would definitely bookmark it!
I just want to SEE a puffin in person. I have been foiled in every attempt. I would love to see what it looks like to snuggle one though.. 🙂
I want to travel more, with England/Scotland/Ireland, Scandinavia, Italy and other parts of Europe at the top of my list, as well as Newfoundland, in my own country. I want to take dh to New York City (and I REALLY want him to like it, so he’ll go back with me, again & again 😉 ). I want him to take me on a surprise trip, ANYWHERE. (I’ve always loved the commercial where the wife is dropping her husband off at the airport — & he holds up two airplane tickets. 🙂 ) I want to put together my family tree research into some semblance of a book & publish it for my relatives, and I want at least a few of them to care and be excited about it. I want to meet more of my blogging & other online friends in real life, and I too want to be in the audience for your TED talk. 🙂 I want to see a woman president of the United States (frankly, I thought I’d see one before I saw a black man elected to the post…!) and another female prime minister of Canada (who gets to stay in office longer than three months). I (REALLY) want to see the Donald Trumps & Doug Fords of the world get their just desserts :p and for some semblance of sanity and decency to be restored to public life. I could ramble on, but I guess that’s as good a place as any to end. Am I asking for too much??