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Last thoughts... Regret, guilt, rage passive acceptance, shock?

ricksfolly

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In a movie last night night called, "The taking of Pelham one two three," a dozen different people in a runaway subway car, knowing they were about to die, reacted to it in different ways. Some regretted things they should have done, others felt guilty about things they did, and a few just sat there wide eyed in shock with no thoughts.

If you (anyone) were in the same kind of life or death situation, what would your last thoughts be?

ricksfolly
 
In a movie last night night called, "The taking of Pelham one two three," a dozen different people in a runaway subway car, knowing they were about to die, reacted to it in different ways. Some regretted things they should have done, others felt guilty about things they did, and a few just sat there wide eyed in shock with no thoughts.

If you (anyone) were in the same kind of life or death situation, what would your last thoughts be?

ricksfolly

I guess I'd wonder if I made a difference in the world -- in a good way. We allllll make mistakes. We all have regrets in our lives....things we wish we'd done differently. I wouldn't be beating myself up for those things; I'm human. But I think I'd reflect on the good things I've done -- and hope I lightened some people's burdens along the way.
 
Hopeful optimism that my day was about to get a lot better. :mrgreen:
 
I guess I'd wonder if I made a difference in the world -- in a good way. We allllll make mistakes. We all have regrets in our lives....things we wish we'd done differently. I wouldn't be beating myself up for those things; I'm human. But I think I'd reflect on the good things I've done -- and hope I lightened some people's burdens along the way.

That's what you hope you'd do, but not would actually happen...

In my case, I've faced death or injury many times, fallen three times, lived through three major earthquakes, and in all cases, there was no fear, no pain, no thoughts, only a few long seconds of being a helpless spectator watching everything unfold in slow motion.

ricksfolly
 
That's what you hope you'd do, but not would actually happen...

In my case, I've faced death or injury many times, fallen three times, lived through three major earthquakes, and in all cases, there was no fear, no pain, no thoughts, only a few long seconds of being a helpless spectator watching everything unfold in slow motion.

ricksfolly



Hmmm.


Well, I've been in a few car crashes, several dozen narrowly averted near-crashes, shooting incidents, knife attacks, two gang attacks, almost fell off a cliff, did fall off a cliff, had emergency surgery to fix a life-threatening condition... heck I lose track. In many of those situations I felt that my life was in peril; several times I was convinced I was likely to die.

Mostly I was too busy trying to find the right action to stay alive to worry about much else.

I'm still here, if that says anything.
 
Hmmm.


Well, I've been in a few car crashes, several dozen narrowly averted near-crashes, shooting incidents, knife attacks, two gang attacks, almost fell off a cliff, did fall off a cliff, had emergency surgery to fix a life-threatening condition... heck I lose track. In many of those situations I felt that my life was in peril; several times I was convinced I was likely to die.

Mostly I was too busy trying to find the right action to stay alive to worry about much else.

I'm still here, if that says anything.

Your employer had a top quality health plan? ;)
 
Your employer had a top quality health plan? ;)

It was pretty good when I was a county cop actually. $60 a month got me all kinds of benefits. What I didn't realize at first was how often I was going to need them. ;)
 
Hmmm.


Well, I've been in a few car crashes, several dozen narrowly averted near-crashes, shooting incidents, knife attacks, two gang attacks, almost fell off a cliff, did fall off a cliff, had emergency surgery to fix a life-threatening condition... heck I lose track. In many of those situations I felt that my life was in peril; several times I was convinced I was likely to die.

Mostly I was too busy trying to find the right action to stay alive to worry about much else.

I'm still here, if that says anything.

During your worst times, when all was lost, did you have the sensation of everything slowing down, like it does with pot or other drugs?

ricksfolly
 
That's what you hope you'd do, but not would actually happen...

In my case, I've faced death or injury many times, fallen three times, lived through three major earthquakes, and in all cases, there was no fear, no pain, no thoughts, only a few long seconds of being a helpless spectator watching everything unfold in slow motion.

ricksfolly

Hi, Rick. You raise some good points. But I doubt that I'll die from traumatic injury; if I did, I'd be very happy. I think I'm destined, like most Americans, to die of an illness.

Most likely causes by rank:

•Heart disease: 616,067
•Cancer: 562,875
•Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 135,952
•Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 127,924

Accidents rate #5 with 123,000. My odds of having lots of time to think about it? Probably about 12:1. ;-)
 
During your worst times, when all was lost, did you have the sensation of everything slowing down, like it does with pot or other drugs?

ricksfolly

It is called the tache-psyche effect, and is a common experience in life-threatening situations. Yes, I experienced it on many occasions, not just when "all seemed lost."

Going through Atlanta during rush hour, 12 lanes of traffic all going 85 mph...
"Ah, four cars have just crashed in front of me. Let's see... no, can't move left. What about right? Hm, not good that way. Let's see, that car just ahead is spinning madly and may be sliding right, can I thread between him and the next car? Looks very iffy but there's no other options... here we go............... holy crap, that actually worked! I'm alive!"

It was probably over in 2 seconds, seemed more like 30.
 
Hi, Rick. You raise some good points. But I doubt that I'll die from traumatic injury; if I did, I'd be very happy. I think I'm destined, like most Americans, to die of an illness.

Most likely causes by rank:

•Heart disease: 616,067
•Cancer: 562,875
•Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 135,952
•Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 127,924

Accidents rate #5 with 123,000. My odds of having lots of time to think about it? Probably about 12:1. ;-)
>>

Hard to say what part fear plays in long term death. My wife was more concerned about the children then herself the day before she died from lung cancer, and even assured me she wouldn't be a bitch. The strangest part was her being bed ridden for months and getting up and walking around the day before she died.

Later a friend in a TB ward told me that suddenly feeling better was a bad sign for patients because they always died right after that. He survived, most of the others didn't.

ricksfolly
 
In a movie last night night called, "The taking of Pelham one two three," a dozen different people in a runaway subway car, knowing they were about to die, reacted to it in different ways. Some regretted things they should have done, others felt guilty about things they did, and a few just sat there wide eyed in shock with no thoughts.

If you (anyone) were in the same kind of life or death situation, what would your last thoughts be?

ricksfolly

My last thoughts would be of my children. If they were still kids, I'd worry about what they'd do, how they'd manage without me and would they be OK. If they were adults, I would hope I had raised them to be happy and productive adults.. hell, I worry about the job I'm doing with them now. I know I've made mistakes with them.. and I try to right those as soon as I realize that I've been unreasonable (or whatever the case may be). I am hard on them.. maybe too hard sometimes. I just want them to grow up knowing that while it's important to be happy in life, that their happiness hinges mostly with themselves.. and not to look to others for that happiness.

I'm sure my mind would be in a million places, but I know the focus would be on my children.
 

I would be thinking about my kids and how much I'm going to miss them.

 
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