So many things to ponder, so little time. Often I feel as if I am in need of a “mental floss.” Similar to dental flossing, mental flossing would also get between the cracks, spaces, crevices of my brain to help me clear it out.
When we were in the 24th day of January in this brand new year, the United States had already witnessed 40 mass shootings. More mass shootings than days; stunning, is it not? Unpredictable and extreme weather, inexplicable deaths of young athletes, rising prices, sinkholes disintegrating the very pavement beneath our feet, wars, escalating mean spirited encounters and clashes, hateful rhetoric tossed around with little regard to consequence, and numberless varied issues constantly invading our minds jockeying for position.
It’s enough to make a person just want to sit in a chair, tune out the world, and read a good book.
We could spend countless brain cells, vast amounts of energy, and the most precious commodity that each of us has, time, on any of these pressing issues.
Join me in pursuing a different direction for a few moments. As a person involved in the educational process most of my adult life (as a kid the educational process was that which occurred before and after summer break), one of my great loves is simply words. All words, actually hold my interest.
(The word for a lover of words is a logiphile, although some use lexiphile.)
In a recent conversation with one of my sisters-in-law, we were relating a few memories about someone who had died a few days earlier. During that telephone conversation, she recalled the words which my mom spoke in that brief time of lucidity prior to her death. I have spoken of my mom in this column before; many of you knew her and almost everyone who did, loved her. If you didn’t have the opportunity to know her, I am sorry.
She died in the spring of 2000. Her last several hours, she was beyond our reach even though the family was with her constantly. But for a wonderful but fleeting moment her eyes cleared, her breathing eased, she smiled that smile that could stop the very world from turning, she looked at us and calmly said, “I had a really good time.”
Well, remembering that, I began to think about the words which other people have spoken in their final moments before dying. It sounds a bit morbid, I suppose, until you begin looking at what has been recorded as people’s last words. Often, no one can know them exactly because either the person dying was alone or no one recorded the words. I find the topic most interesting and firmly believe it would be a tantalizing and revealing party discussion topic. Let me share a few of the memorable “last words” of some people you may recognize.
Emily Dickinson: “I must go in, the fog is rising.”
Steve Jobs: “Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow.”
Bob Marley: “Money can’t buy life.” (A grand understatement.)
Beethoven: “Friends applaud, the comedy is finished.”
Ben Franklin: “A dying man can do nothing easy.”
Humphrey Bogart: “I should have never switched from scotch to martinis.”
Winston Churchill: “I’m bored with it all.”
Nostradamus: “Tomorrow morning, at sunrise, I shall no longer be here.”
Nun Louise-Marie-Therese de Saint Maurice, while tending to the dying Countesse de Vercellia, “Good. A woman who can fart is not dead.” (Well, OK then … good to know, I suppose.)
Queen Elizabeth I: “All of my possessions for a moment of time!” (I bet many have thought this.)
Groucho Marx: “This is no way to live! Die, my dear? Why, that’s the last thing I’ll do!”
Alfred Hitchcock: “One never knows the ending. One has to die to know exactly what happens after death, although Catholics have their hopes.”
Lady Nancy Astor (when she noticed her family gathering around her bed): “Am I dying or is this my birthday?”
“Pistol” Pete Maravich: “I feel great.”
Frida Kahlo: “I hope the exit is joyful and hope never to return.”
Jack Daniels (yes, that one): “One last drink, please.”
Kurt Cobain (as written in his suicide note): “It’s better to burn out than to fade away.”
Gertrude Stein: “What is the answer?” When no one replied, she added: “In that case, what is the question?”
John Belushi: “Just don’t leave me alone.”
Any last words spoken have meaning, even if we might not fully understand or discern what that meaning might be. It is, however, an interesting concept to consider. According to those who study such things, one of the very most frequently used last words is “Momma.” Guess that makes sense as most of us long for our moms when things are not going well.
We rarely are privy to what is going on in most people’s thoughts even when they are alive and breathing. Words spoken at death can be even more elusive and mystifying.
Here’s the Thing: I do not have a clue what my last words will be. I have given the matter some consideration, though, and have written a list of words I sincerely hope do not slip through my pursed lips on the occasion. This is mostly because I know the words I use now with some degree of frequency and can state definitively that they are not the last things I want those I love to hear.
While the majority of us will not make some profound earth-shaking pronouncement at our deaths, whatever we say in those last moments of clarity will matter. In any case, my mom’s exit line — “I had a really good time” — sounds just about perfect to me.
bkreigh@adamswells.com
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Editor’s Note: This is one of a series of articles written by a group of retired and current teachers — Ken Ballinger, Billy Kreigh, Marianne Darr-Norman, and Anna Spalding. Their intent is to spur discussions at the dinner table and elsewhere. You may also voice your thoughts and reactions via The News-Banner’s letters to editor.
