If you knew, what would you do?

Imagine that you were given the knowledge of exactly when someone that you know is going to die.

Also, imagine that somehow if you told them about it, it would mean that you would instantly fall over dead.

(tough criteria, I know, but bear with me…)

Now, image having lots of conversations with that person – let’s say that they are telling you all of their plans for some great new online application that they are making, or perhaps they are telling you all about this new house they are going to have built.

Given what you know about them, would you listen with intent and encouragement? Would you show compassion to them knowing that whatever their dreams or plans are would never be complete?

What would you do?

Ok, assuming that most of you said that yes, you would be as compassionate as possible and show them support, etc. the real question here is this – Since none of us really know exactly when that moment is going to come, why don’t we show the same level of compassion for each and everyone that we interact with?

Why would the value of their life seem greater if we knew exactly when it was going to end?

What were you thinking about when you were reading this post?

Please chime in with the comments – if you’d like to comment on Twitter, that’s fine, but please also do so here so that the conversation will have some sort of longevity.