What’s a life worth?

Back during those terrible days after 9/11 one of the more painful topics of discussion was how much an individual life was worth.

I remember reading about the guy who had to make those decisions and how hard his job was. He sounded very sad in the interviews and he took it very seriously. It was a process that was meant to give some compensation to the widows and children of those killed by the terrorists. It often didn’t make anyone very happy, but it was something that had to be done.

Now years after for whatever reason it got me to wondering what value we place on every day. Are some days worth more than others? If you had the ability to purchase a day you have already lived and live it all over again, would you? How much would you pay?

In general I know that Monday’s would be very low on the buy back scale. And I can imagine that weekends would go for a premium.

But I am talking very specific here. Of all the 30,000 days that you have lived what days would you bid to live again?

Most people come up with a pretty standard list. Wedding days, Births, first dates, all the mile markers that make our lives. But when I sit down and think about perfect days I find my mind drifts to time spent with loved ones, especially those no longer around.

Sunny days we thought would never end as James Taylor put it. It seems to me that my most treasured memories are snippets of days where time seemed to become suspended and the focus was on who you were with and not much about what we were doing.

Time seems to color those moments in time. Mostly it seems to bring up the volume on the good stuff and somehow hide the rest.

If there was a way to edit those memories like a video and string them all together on an endless loop what would that be worth?

When you really need that video in your brain it would be priceless.

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About James Rising

A recovering radio addict wrestles with the written word.
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