Sunday, March 1, 2009

before i die.

I spent a good majority of the last half hour of my life on this site. Two artists are conducting a project where they go around the country, take Polaroid pictures of people (laame that Polaroid is being discontinued, btw) and ask them the question "What do you want to do before you die?"

In a number of years, the participants are going to be contacted to see if they accomplished their goal and why or why not they didn't.

The artists hope that 'by asking people to state out loud/write down something they want to do before they die and to be aware we will be checking up on them in a number of years, we believe that this will add significantly to their motivation to accomplish their goal.'

A human connection that shows someone cares, if you will.

The responses fascinated me. Countless people want to
  • have kids
  • fall in love
  • be happy
  • be a millionaire
  • travel the world
  • write a book
First of all, I'm not sure how meaningful the millions you've made are going to be to you after you die. The other answers were incredibly consistent though. Human beings want to establish emotional connections, be content, make an impact through something they do. And travel. Everyone wanted to travel. It makes me feel lucky.

What do you want to do before you die?







Posted by at

4 comments:

Micah said...

meggy - i feel like the money isn't necessarily wanted so that they can pass in a casket lined with hundos, it's so that when they have kids, their kids will be taken care of. or so they can travel, write a book and still pay the rent... knowwhatimean?

honestly, i want to make a million before i die. but, it's to fund all the other things i want to do. i want to be able to send a city kid to an expensive college where they won't have to worry about any bills. i want to pay too much for artwork from struggling artists. i want to provide for my parents when they go senile, i want to make sure my sister doesn't have to struggle. i want to give my love everything she wants, have or adapt a kid, provide for them, i want to plant trees and buy a wind-farm. i want to fund the next big thing, and take no credit for it.

now how many of these things do you think i'll actually pull off? check back with me in 40 years.

what do you want to do before you die?

March 2, 2009 at 7:35 AM
megan jane. said...

michey-

itotesknowwhatyoumean. andagreewithyou.

saying what you want out loud, to another human being, is supposed to hold you to your goals more.

before i die, i would like to be content.

..i'll let you know how that goes.

March 2, 2009 at 4:52 PM
Unknown said...

Did you take these photos and have them write their answer on there or did you find these? It's such a cool idea! It'd make a good coffee table book!

March 3, 2009 at 6:32 PM
Jen Hunholz said...

before i die, i want to make my blog as cool as your's.

March 6, 2009 at 10:32 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)