0- cindy project- mirror reflection parents

Dear friend,

Currently in Saigon, and pondering– how can you live the best possible life, and what does that even mean?

You might die today.

eric kim saigon cindy project black and white-0019049

Okay, lets outline some ideas:

First of all, you’re going to die whether you like it or not. At best you will live to be around 90-100 years old. At worst, you will die today (car accident), or die tonight in your sleep.
Considering that life is short and fleeting, and uncertain when you’re going to die– it only seems to make logical sense to ‘live everyday like it were your last’, or in better words: “Live today as if you were going to die in your sleep tonight” or “Live right now as if you’re going to die later today in a texting-while-driving accident”.

Why you must live today like it were your last

Cindy Project Monochrome-10

So assuming we take this philosophy of living everyday like it were your last, what are things we would want to do in this one single day? I think:

Doing creative/meaningful work, which you hope will help present and future generations of humanity/people.
Not caring about money, power, or status– because you’re going to die tonight, and you can’t take money or status with you when you’re dead.
Not waste your time with people who are toxic/negative to your life– they don’t deserve your last day on earth.
On the opposite hand, if you knew that today were your last day alive, who would you want to spend your life with? For myself, of course it would involve Cindy and perhaps my mom and sister Annette Kim.
Not taking any drugs/impairment substances which will prevent you from living today to the fullest.
Doing some sort of brief, and invigorating physical activity/exercise, to give you more energy/feel more pumped/up/psyched-up for today. That can mean brief chin-ups at the local park, doing squats/deadlifts at the gym, or a mind-refreshing walk in the park/hills.
Some sort of prayer of gratitude: to be cognizant of your blessing of being alive, the gratitude of having lived your life already, and remembering to count your blessings/preach gratitude to yourself and perhaps your small circle of friends.
Some sort of public archive of your stuff, information, books, or objects. For myself, I don’t believe in a “practical” afterlife where we are cognizant. Thus, I like the idea of having my blog, information, videos, all ‘open source‘– so any future generations can access this information. Of course sooner or later this information is going to die, but at least a few concepts/pictures/ideas/philosophies can live on after my death.

Cindy Project Monochrome - black and white - Eric Kim24