I happen to like last words. Words spoken before the death of an individual, with no more left to say after, for you are dead. I find them very fascinating. As the mighty Joker once said… “In their last moments, people show you who they really are” and i think this is true. Well, for some. For people who know they are going to die, i believe this to be true. But what about for people who do not know exactly when they are to die? What makes their words resemble who they are inside? It might not completely, but most are ironic enough to be shown as insightful or comedic. For instance, Saki, an officer in world war 1 yelled at another officer in the trench to “Put out the bloody cigarette!” in fear the smoke would give away their positions. As he yelled this, a sniper heard the remark and shot him. He had shown who he was and what he was thinking in the last moments of life, right before giving away his own position. Another ironic last words was made by Nostradomus, where he uttered “Tomorrow, I shall no longer be here“. He has predicted his own death… and even right before his death, he showed who he really was. John F. Kennedy, responding to Nellie Connally, wife of Governor John Connelly, who had said “You certainly can’t say that the people of Dallas haven’t given you a nice welcome, Mr. President, lastly said “No, you certainly can’t.”
One of my favorite last words were from Einstein. I’ll set up the situation. Albert was in the hospital, lying in bed, knowing he was soon to be gone. As he realizes his last moment is upon him, he looks over to the nurse in his room and solemnly states… ” ”. No one knows. Albert said his last words in his native language of German, while his nurse did not speak German. No one knows what Albert Einstein’s last words were! How unfortunate that one of the greatest minds ever, never got to share his final thoughts on the world, existence, the future…. no one knows. Tis a shame. Perhaps this is just symmetry. He came into this world not being able to be understood, and leaves not understood. Well phooei! Symmetry stinks!
Some are able to laugh in the face of death, making the experience much more enjoyable. “Am i dying or is this my birthday” Nancy Astor says as she wakes up with many people around her. Some people just accept fate and just announce to the world “This is the last of Earth! I am content” like John Quincy Adams. (Jay aque aaye!) Your Last words are your final chances to say what you absolutely need to say before you can never say these things again. That is why The Joker is correct in this sense. You get to decide how you leave this world. Everybody wants to go out with a bang, and be remembered for being awesome up until their last few moments, so you can decide how you would like to do so. Would you want to leave with a funny remark, content remark, true remark? While not all get to choose at the moment of their death, it falls under the ironic or amazing category.
Knowing now, the importance of last words, how does this make you feel? Does this sadden you? Does it excite you? Does it make you feel that words are powerful? It certainly does all for me. What makes last words so different that any other quote or statement that said person has said their entire life? Well, to answer this, we must look at the situation. If you know you are going to die, like an execution or murder, this is your last time to give others an opinion of you as you so die. With any other quote, you are just sharing knowledge or an observation. If you are dying, but not sure of when, this is also your time to tell how you feel and last time to share your knowledge in the world, and how you feel about the dying process, like what you have learned from life. So it is most certainly different in those aspects. See, as the joker was plummeting to his doom, he wasn’t upset. He didn’t fear it. He simply truly showed who he really was in his final moments, and laughed all the way down, thinking he was soon no more. What do you wish to leave the world with?
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11:23 PM - 10-29-2012
Great job Ben!! I really enjoyed reading your blog! I too agree with what the mighty Joker once said, ““In their last moments, people show you who they really are.” Before reading your blog I never actually thought about a persons last words truly expressing who they are. I’m not quite sure how knowing about these last words makes me feel, but it does sadden me to know that some people will never be heard until they take their last breath.