Thursday, January 2, 2014

Did you die?

Every other monday, I have a column in a Swedish daily (yes, that is one very smug headshot). I've written for a year and have recently been told my time's up. That's just how it is.

I'll miss writing for them, it is a great job, pays fine and whatever I write has been read for real, by commuters who sometimes write back.

When I was first assigned; I told the paper that I was perhaps not the kind of columnist they were seeking as I rarely upset people and rarely if ever seek to say controversial things. "I'm an entertainer" I told them but then, when hired, I went on to write about cemeteries and grief.

I only have two more columns to write and would like to keep up the gloom.
Here's what I want to write about: I wonder what happens when you die. I mean that deja-vu thing you're supposed to experience right before it's all over.

Is it a feast of all those memories we love to return to or can one even hope for a director's cut - material only seen once before and then forgotten? Will it be a selection of feel-good stuff or does the brain not discriminate on emotional grounds? Will it simply be impressions of sounds and sights with no emotional editing involved?

I know I have doctors and nurses and scientifically and spiritually interested people among my readers.
And all sorts of other people.
Therefore I want to ask you, as this is a matter that will concern all of us in the end:

Did you die?
What did you see?

so curious
-e