www.leefur.com

Hi all ...

Now let me begin by saying that I am not intending to be dead anytime soon. At all.

However, inspired by a piece of media I consumed today, I am attempting an exercise that is aimed, quite contrarily, at understanding my life. If you do not understand that distinction, that is okay, but you should probably not attempt this exercise. For anyone else, I would really, truly love to hear that you gave this a shot. Ah and if you can guess the 'media', congratulations - you've just won two copies; one for you, and one for you to give to someone you think will 'get it'.

The exercise: I would like you to write your Last Will & Testament. I have no idea what these generally look like. That doesn't so much matter. But I would like you to pretend, for just a moment, that you are truly dying. Your end is imminent. And you have to write your last words to the world. You also have to figure out how to divide your belongings.

This is probably a multi-hour activity, at the minimum. I ask only that you give this 10 minutes. I recommend that you do this in Notepad, or whatever your most basic editor is (or on paper). This will help keep you focused on the words.

Some final points on my attempt here - I am writing this in my apartment (last night), where I have no internet, and no wills laying around. So I have no idea where to start. I spent about a half hour on it. To give you an idea, here's how I started.

The Last Will and Testament of Lee Jason Fuhr

Created: Monday, February 28, 2005
Last Edited: Monday, February 28, 2005, 11:55pm

I will begin by saying that I do not know the standards around a document of this type. More importantly, I am not concerned with this.

That said, the first thing I want to say is that I have an unbounding and powerful love for my family. There are no words that can sufficiently capture the positive force that this nucleus has provided in my life, but I shall try.

I will gladly share my result with anyone who gives this an earnest effort and shares it with me. I know this is very personal. But it is also meant to be read publicly. And it can have a profound effect on you.

Please don't bother mocking this. I know it's easy to. But I'll just delete your comments if you do, and you're stealing the point here. As evidence of the realism I intend here, I state here that in the unfortunate and unexpected event that I do pass in the near future, please use this document as my standing Will.

Now ... really ... imagine you have a rare form of progressive, inoperable stomach cancer. You have one month to live. You are scared in a way that you have never been scared. You can feel your mind race with the things you haven't yet done, and with the things you have. Now, write to the world.