What would you bring?

Halfway throug Generation X by Mr Coupland
we readers are to think of what we will bring:

"I want you to tell me something first;
after you’re dead and buried and
floating around in whatever place we go to,
what’s going to be your best memory of earth?"

"What one moment for you defines what it’s like
to be alive on this planet. What’s your takeaway?"

"I want to hear some small moment from your life
that proves you’re really alive?"

An example of what the characters answered would be:
snow. That is the answer Claire gives. Snow.

My direct and immediate reply would be. P a i n.
Not a conventional one I suppose,
Not the most streamlined - mainstreamed one.
But I am quite comfortable with answering that.


Being a kid at fifteen, skateboarding was great fun.
I loved the sport, loved the gang. Never had any particular technique -
I rather went for speed, height and risk.
Usually ending up hurt, blue, bruised and full of joy!

Beeing a Scorpio. I would rather feel pain, than to feel nothing at all.
I want to be fully immersed in it, deeply and passionately involved.
(Life for you is not a spectator sport). (Quoted from astro-site)

Beeing a grown (?) up man, in the ring, ready to fight.
Adrenaline rushing to the brain, senses sharpened.
Pain is my reminder, my receipt. I live - I am alive:

Yeah you bleed just to know you're alive

Iris - Goo Goo Dolls, City of Angel's soundtrack

Sure I will remember the smell of roses
I will have a sense of what a kiss tasted like
My hands still recall the softness of skin
My heart will beat upon thinking of h e r

But my takeaway, my one thing that defines
what it's like to be a l i v e. That will still be Pain

I hurt myself today
to see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
the only thing that's real

NIN - Hurt

If you still think the answer is too morbid or
leaning too much to the dark side.
Think about what you do when you wake up from a dream
and want to make sure you are awake - that you are a l i ve.
Yeah, you pinch yourself - who's the masochist now? Huh? ;)