From technology to politics to video games; these are the random thoughts of a geek with too much time on his hands
Published on July 18, 2004 By Zoomba In Blogging
Last night I saw an interesting Japanese film on campus called Afterlife, the idea is that when you die you go to this large building and you are assigned to a worker. What you have to do is select one memory from your life that is the most happy/meaningful/important to you. You have three days to consider your memories and then select one and describe it in detail to your worker. The next two days are spent creating a film recreation of that memory. The deal though is that this is the ONLY memory you take with you once the week is over. The memory you select is the memory you will experience/view over and over for the remainder of eternity. Once you view the film of your memory, you vanish from the viewing room never to be seen again, passing on into your own chosen memory.

THe movie follows a small handful of people out of a larger group for the week and shows the process one might go through trying to choose their memory. Of course there are people who either can't or won't choose a memory, and those who have a very difficult time coming up with one.

If you were to die today, right this moment, what memory from your life would you choose to keep for all of eternity, forgetting everything else you ever experienced, anyone else you ever knew. What would be your most cherished memory?

Comments
on Jul 18, 2004
I'll come back to you with a serious answer to that in 3 days. In the meantime...

I would relive the memory of reading you post, thinking about your post and then thinking about what memory I would take with me.

Adamo.
on Jul 18, 2004
That kind of afterlife wouldn't be heaven; it would be Hell. I have too many wonderful memories from life to single out one to the exclusion of others. While it's interesting to ponder, I am hopeful that no God could be so cruel.

For instance, I have four (going on five) children. I would have to choose a memory that wouldn't neglect any of them, nor my wife of 9 years. Guess maybe it should be the impending birth of our fifth child, once he/she arrives, then, if I were forced to choose one.
on Jul 19, 2004
I never said this was heaven... in fact they made a point in the movie that everyone, regardless of what they were like in life, went through this same process. It would seem that heaven or hell would play out in the memories you had to choose from. All-in-all it's more a commentary on what ends up being the most important to us as opposed to a commentary on God or the nature of heaven or hell, they specifically avoided it in the movie.
on Jul 30, 2004
If I have to die now and take only one memory with me, it will be either a rising sun on the distant horizon, or jasmine aroma-filled full moon night or a lotus about to blossom....
or

me on my grandma's back long,long ago and she singing me a lullaby:

"tha that thabungton
nacha morambi pobige
pobi sanam nambige
heibong charong amata
thadabirak-u thabung-ton"!

free translation of the above:
" oh moon, precious moon
I shall carry your child on my back
and sing a lullaby to him
please drop a bunch of figs
from up there
oh moon, precious moon."

Since Armstrong, grandmas have stopped singing the above lullaby to their grandsons/granddaughters, as the wiser americans say that there is only frozen water on the surface of the moon, and no fig trees there!

on Jul 30, 2004
Right now, this second, I would choose the birth of my son. At that time in my life I was surrounded by everyone I love, and those that couldn't be there would be represented by those who were. My daughter was there and she embodies everything that was good about my first relationship. My husband was there. My mother. And of course, my son in whose eyes my father was reflected.

on Jul 30, 2004
I love the answers here, so far. The memory I'd choose, would be as they wheeled my daughter and I out of the delivery room to see my entire family there waiting on us. I had my daughter and everyone was still alive. Zoomba, may I ask what your memory would be?