A Quote to Start Things Off

""I'd love to go to Santa Fe at some point, Emmett said, but for the time being, I need to go to New York. The panhandler stopped laughing and adopted a more serious expression. Well. that's life in a nutshell, aint it. Lovin' to go to one place and havin' to go to another. Amor Towles in the Lincoln Highway.

Search Me!

Pictures of Memories I

Pictures of Memories I
Snow kidding! These "kids" now range from 17 to 23

Friday, August 20, 2010

Six Word Saturday




http://www.showmyface.com/ hosts an extravaganza called Six Word Saturday.

My Six: Swimming against the dead pool current.

A couple of my relatives are participating in a dead pool this year. A dead pool is basically like any office pool but instead of best actor or super bowl halftime scores you pick celebrities who you think will croak first (Kermit the frog excluded).

One of said relatives likes to talk about it all the time and preface it with "I know you don't like me to talk about this, but ..." I'm in many ways drawn to death. I used to have a page of my now defunct geocities site where I posted recent obituaries of the famous. I didn't have any qualms against calling the page, Currently Dead. But Death Pools? No Way!
I think there are just a few main reasons why I'm against death pools:

1) On some basis you are rooting for the death of someone else for your benefit. (Note: My relatives have no money at stake in their pool. Just bragging rights.) One of my relatives likes to tell me proudly who she picked correctly. The other is "jokingly" mad that someone on her list has been twice hospitalized but has not paid off for her.

2) I think it is insensitive to the families of these famous people to speculate on the demise of their beloved. Sometimes this speculation is on perfectly healthy famous people. Many dead pools give more points the younger the deceased. This point ties in and overlaps with my first. My relatives and I all lost a dear family member (my brother) in the past 18 months. I questioned one of my relatives about this asking her what would you say if I said "cool! I had Keith in my dead pool."? The reply was that He wasn't famous. But these famous people have relatives too. Where is the empathy?

3)The greatest reason I am against Death Pools is that it is counter to my entire philosophy of life: A)We were made by a creator for the ultimate purpose of eternal fellowship with Him. B) In life we have the opportunity to follow Him reject Him. C) Those who follow will have eternal fellowship, Those who reject eternal torment. D) As long as life continues there is opportunity to follow.

Many of you may not hold to the same philosophies as I do. That's not the point. The point is I would never want to hope in any way for the eternal torment of anyone. For me, participating in death pools or tolerating them would in my mind, be a way of doing so.

So thanks for visiting the Illinois Suburb of Downer's Grove today. You can participate in Six Word Saturday by clicking here.

Next Time: Overheard

7 comments:

Magical Mystical Teacher said...

Death is inevitable; therefore, choose life.


6WS: Feeling My Mortality

Hootin Anni said...

My six for you...Kermit can't croak? That's no fair!

HERE IS MY ENTRY

Kathy said...

Interesting subject matter...I've never heard of "dead pools", but I wouldn't want to participate in that either.

Saralyn said...

Maybe you should start a "life pool" where you pick the next celebrity to openly follow Christ.

Nancy said...

I have no problem with Dead Pools. I mean, we are all going to die someday. If someone can predict when and get some entertainment value from it, more power to them. Have a great day!!

Chick Hatchers said...

You made a very strong statement that is right on when you said, "The point is I would never want to hope in any way for the eternal torment of anyone."

I hadn't thought of it that way, not that I go around hoping for people to die, and I'm sure many others don't either.

Wow.

Linda Bob Grifins Korbetis Hall said...

fun six words...
I don't swim much..
have a fun end of the summer time.

A to Z 2023 Road Trip

#AtoZChallenge 2023 RoadTrip