Ashes FTW

Quote I grabbed from the fridge to read for mom's eulogy.

A few years ago a neighbor of ours died in a motorcycle accident, and I was impressed by his daughters and their ability to string together coherent thoughts at the funeral. 

Not me.  I was so stunned and in utter disbelief, I couldn't piece much together.  I wanted to talk, to honor her, but it just didn't come to me what to say.  I wanted to read from the Book of Ruth, the "wherever you go, I will go" passage.  But as the service drew close, it didn't seem appropriate to say I'd go where she'd go.  Who knows if I'd be buried beside her?  And who'd want to hear that at a funeral by a 25 year old woman?

On the way out the door I grabbed a quote mom had laminated on our fridge.  It had been in one house or another for years and years.  I took it for granted day after day, but on that January day in 1999, it seemed to me the only appropriate thing to say.

I would rather be ashes than dust.  I would rather my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled in dry-rot.  I would rather be a superb METEOR, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.  Man's chief purpose is to LIVE, not to exist.  I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.  I shall use my time.

~Jack London