My End-of-the-World Top 10 List
December 21, 2012 § 5 Comments
Today the world will end. So in honor of this, our last day on Earth, I offer a final top 10 list.
If I could only …
10. Read one last book: I’d read To the Lighthouse by Virgina Woolf.
9. Watch one last movie: I’d watch Malick’s beautiful, epic, heartbreaking The New World.
8. Eat one last meal: I’d eat surf and turf, obviously.
7. Visit one last place: I’d be on a boat in the middle of the lake where I spent all those precious childhood summers.
6. Savor one last poem: It would be “Renascence” by Edna St. Vincent Millay … All I could see from where I stood / was three long mountains and a wood …
5. Experience one last rush: I’d ride my horse as fast as I could through that open field of new green wheat. The wind in my hair, strong muscles moving beneath me … thinking I’m in control, but knowing I could lose it in an instant.
4. Smell one last scent: To breathe deeply of those lilacs that used to grow on the side of the house where I grew up.
3. Right one last wrong: Aside from wearing sunscreen every day (which doesn’t really matter now since it’s the end of the world), there’s a friend I’d find. I’d tell her I’m sorry. That I was young and zealous. That I didn’t know gray yet. That I didn’t understand how heavy and complicated life gets. That I hadn’t yet walked the way of grace.
2. Feel one last touch: I’d hold my breath and sink under water—the cool rush over my head, refreshing and soft and total.
1. Relive one last memory: Fireflies and shooting stars and swirling smoke from the campfire. Laughter in the dark and flickering light on beloved faces. I thought it would never end and then it did.
And if I could have one last wish, I’d gather you all together—my scattered friends and family—all of you I love in one room. To eat, drink, laugh and be merry … because, well you know, today we all die.
Hmm. This list was supposed to be lighthearted and then it went and turned melancholy. I suppose there’s nothing like the end of the world to get you thinking. So, on that note … shall we party like there’s no tomorrow?
What about you—what would your final top 10 look like?
This list is beautiful. Much to ponder.
Number 4. Same exact thought.
That’s a good list and far more heady than my own which is basically “eat scrambled eggs and don’t bother changing out of my pajamas.”
surf and turf. obviously.
[...] the world was supposed to end last week. A friend of mine posted her top-ten end-of-the-world list. I am a little late to the game, but I still want to [...]