Before I Die is a project that started in New Orleans by artist, designer and urban planner, Candy Chang. It has taken off around the world.
It is an interactive public art installation that came about when Candy painted the walls of an old abandoned warehouse with black chalkboard paint and stencilled line after line of the same unfinished sentence; Before I Die I Want To ________________.
She left little baskets of coloured chalk so people walking by could fill in the blanks. It has captured imaginations and similar installations are popping up around the world.
I am a fan of any project that reminds us that life is short and we need to live. I have a lovely little Mexican skeleton hanging from my desk light that is my daily memento mori reminder to live as large as possible.
As far as I know there are two types of decisions about how to live life; either we live and act based on love or we live and act based on fear.
Love is a fierce and passionate emotion and so it’s a relatively easy way to test my actions. Am I clinging to something because of a fear of change? Am I afraid to try something because of fear of looking like a fool? Do I love what I’m doing or am I doing it because of what others think?
There is a lovely piece of advice in the Bible, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” It’s pretty much a recipe for a fabulous world. But my focus on that particular verse isn’t so much on loving my neighbour as learning to love myself.
Jesus is presuming here that we are whole and accepting of ourselves, because if we are, loving others is a walk in the park.
Gandhi has been quoted as having said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Turns out that’s probably more of a bumper sticker than a reliable quote. The closest quote attributed to Gandhi expands the notion a little further, “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. … We need not wait to see what others do.”
Once again, the onus starts with me. If I don’t start by being filled with love and peaceful within myself, how can I possibly extend that to my neighbour or the guy who just took ‘my’ parking spot?
Love starts within and spreads from there.
We know this and yet, fear causes us to make our lives small and safe; as if there can truly be such a thing as a safe life!
I’m not talking about a bucket list, though I think it’s great that some may use this project like that. I see this Before I Die project as a reminder…
We need to live and love large. Be a fool. Risk something. Risk anything. Smile at strangers. Smile at myself. It is a reminder that daring to love is way more fun than fearing to dare.
The facts are clear: We’re going to die, why not really live before that happens?
How would you fill in that sentence?
Before I Die I Want To ___________________.
“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”
– John Lennon
There’s a wall like this on the seawall leading up to the boardwalk for Gibsons Landing, it’s always interesting checking out the latest additions, which range from deeply meaningful to silly to darkly comic to insulting – a pretty good insight into the local psyche of a community!
I haven’t seen that wall in Gibsons Laurie. I’ll have to check it out. There’s also one like it in the fabulous Beaucoup Bakery at 6th & Fir. I don’t think it’s a particularly new concept but for some reason this one has really taken off. I love anything that will get us thinking…
Before I die I want to leave the world a better place than the one I was born into. There are many things we can do to improve it. Here are some examples:
– By giving money to charities on a monthly basis to help people getting out of poverty.
– By signing petitions and writing letters to government officials to help improve the welfare of animals worldwide.
– By doing a sponsored walk/swim/cycle.
– By doing voluntary work.
– By going on peaceful demonstrations.
The list is endless.
Catherine, that is a great ‘Before I Die’ list. I like the idea of an umbrella concept like that. There are so many different ways to leave the world a better place.
That’s really brilliant. I had been fixed with the notion of listing very specific items, but this approach is much more open to new ideas…all within the one stated concept.
Love it.
“We need not wait to see what others do”…Gandhi and my mom, so wise. She paraphrased him when she asked me, after a particularly stupid, peer-inspired stunt, “Would you jump off a cliff if all your friends did it too?”
Mandy, it would seem Gandhi got all the press while your mom and all the other good mothers of the world were busy saying exactly the same thing…The takeaway lesson for me? Be your own person.
How true this is! You cannot love others if you don’t love yourself. You should be opened to others and accept them as they are (sometimes difficult). Smiles, openness and acceptance. I believe that the way you live your life can influence others, by your example and integrity. Fear is small and restricts you to see the beauty of life.
Catherine, fear is truly the greatest restriction and how crazy, that it’s usually self-imposed. I think it’s our responsbility to live our lives to their fullest expression. It’s not always easy but it’s a good reason to get up in the morning!