My One-Word Eulogy
Poking fun at death relieves the tension.
“After Wendell Phillips’s death, someone met Judge Hoar and asked him if he intended to attend the funeral. ‘No,’ answered the Judge, ‘I don’t; but I approve of it.’” NY Times 1885
My Eulogy
A friend asked, “What two words would you love to hear at your funeral?”
I dodged his question. “One word I would say at your funeral is generous.”
He spotted my evasion. “I would like you to answer for yourself.” I replied, “The question makes me anxious. I’m not sure.”
Later I emailed him, “One word I hope to hear at my funeral is genuine. I don’t have a hidden agenda. I show up as myself.” (His request for two words was too much pressure.)
He wrote back, “That’s a perfect word for you. I completely agree.”
I don’t want to hear, “He was like sand in my underwear,” during my eulogy.
Your Eulogy
I resist the eulogy exercise. Choose one word instead.
Take death seriously so you can live skillfully:
Marcus Aurelius wrote, “In short, know this: Human lives are brief and trivial. Yesterday a blob of semen; tomorrow embalming fluid, ash.” Meditations
What one word would you love to hear at your funeral?
Today’s challenge: Live into your one-word eulogy.
How to Live Up to Your Aspiration – Not Down to Your Disappointment
For the brave: How could writing your own Eulogy help you live the life you want right now?
Love the last graphic with “Subscribe before it’s too late.” 🙂
Thanks for pointing that out, John! I missed it on first glance. Well done, Dan!
Thank you, sir.
Glad you enjoyed it. I wanted to sprinkle some humor through this post. Death can be dark.
Happy Friday, Dan! I believe “genuine” is an excellent word for you for this interesting exercise. I am going to share the exercise with my family just to see what they come up with themselves – maybe for both them and me. For me, I choose “authentic” as, like you, what you see is what you get!
It’s interesting how others see us. Sometimes better than we see ourselves.
My one word would be “mentor”. I want folks — both from work and other aspects of my life — to remember me as someone who was there for them, helping them get to where they want to be.
Years ago, I went to a retirement dinner for my husband’s coworker. Speaker after speaker got up and said variations of that coworker had such an impact that they couldn’t imagine the office without him. I decided then and there that was what I wanted my retirement dinner to look like. I don’t want people to ask “Who?” when my retirement is announced. I don’t want to people to cheer when my retirement is announced. I want them to reflect on the impact I have had on them.
Love this!
Thanks, Pamela.
Happy Friday to all! I didn’t notice the “subscribe before it’s too late” graphic until I read John Gray’s post. It is great.Thanks for pointing it out John. I’d give it 2 thumbs up if that option was still available.
Maybe I need to place those image in the body of the post.
The first word that springs to mind is “Inspiring” even though it sounds a bit arrogant. I would hope that my actions and steps to care for my team and clients, as well as my leadership would inspire others to take care of their subordinates, peers and superiors.
Faithful.
But what I find most important about this post is your challenge: live into that word. Yes!
Great post, and I’ll have to give it some thought. What I do know is I don’t want other people deciding on my one-word eulogy: “Finally!” or “Who?” for example.
The one word I want people to say is, “caring”.
Was embalming fluid invented in Marcus Aurelius’ lifetime? My guess is it is a translation generalization. Sorry – just couldn’t get past that.
As far as one word at my funeral – KIND. I encourage my staff to lead with kindness everyday.
Surprisingly, I copied the quote directly from Meditations. Who would have thought?
I wonder if others would say “worried” or “nervous”.
I’ll have to go with ‘Curious’ since that embodies both the good qualities of always wanting to learn more and the ones my family would say about my constant questions (in more of a nagging way LOL).
My father was a life long learner – never ever stopped learning new things no matter now mundane. I aspire to that as well.