Recently I came across the following book: “Before I Go” by Peter Kreeft, a professor of philosophy at Boston College. I found Kreeft's premise intriguing: writing our children letters about what really matters in life. I have not taken the time to write my children such letters, though I have often asked them what questions they have of me, only to get that blank expression from them as only children can give you.
So as is my custom, I have taken Kreeft's answers and transformed them into questions (with references to the chapters giving his answers in parentheses) so we can have a beginner's list of questions and answer them ourselves. My hope is that participants in this question will share other questions to add to the list or share answers so our community will be able to write their own letters to benefit our children before we go.
Here are the questions based on Kreeft's answers.
WHY:
- Is life an art? (36)
- Is Life a fish fry? (42)
- Is life a rehearsal for another birth? (75)
- Is time natural? (136)
- Be practical about the use of time and what are your recommendations? (22)
- Are modern times different? (30)
- Enjoy mornings? (43)
- Keep it simple, stupid? (68)
- Is it better to be a bumper and bleeder than a noodle or a skeleton? (103)
- Stop and smell the roses? (52)
- Is it best to get the Big Picture? (150)
- Are most of us dyslexic with respect to the priorities among our relationships? (156)
- Handicaps? (154)
- My obsessions? (147)
- Letters from the dying to the living? (1)
- Unnecessary answers? (131)
- Is anything the best thing in life and what is it? (3)
- Do we want to say just one last thing and what is it? (4)
- Is it good to remember death? (7)
- Is it important to be a good person? (9)
- Always do your best? (10)
- Pray every day and what for? (11)
- Mean something by "I love you" and what? (13)
- Is there no way out? (15)
- Is only one thing necessary? (32)
- Learn how to get to heaven from here? (40)
- Is dying a beginning? (65)
- Do we exist? (66)
- "If"? (74)
- Be happy and how? (127)
- Be concerned about anything when we die? (161)
- Mother? (21)
- Idols? (38)
- Work and play? (64)
- Work and play and roses? (135)
- Discover two philosophies of life? (88)
- Develop style? (47)
- Find a therapy for fear? (69)
- Slow down? (70)
- Understand and what? (73)
- Have a last resort and what is it? (81)
- Have stupid thoughts? (83)
- Eat the fruits in the toy box? (96)
- Respond with "I didn't deserve that"? (111)
- Fail? (113)
- Acknowledge our inner zoo? (121)
- Do good people suffer? (137)
- Have a plan when everything seems senseless? (144)
- God is like a cat? (149)
- Have a sane scale of values and what might they be? (19)
- The big deal about church? (28)
- Honor? (41)
- Am I giving anyone else advice? (2)
- List some maxims of life and what are they? (44)
- Surf for wisdom? (124)
- Seek the highest wisdom and what is it? (56)
- Seek the profoundest wisdom and what is it? (80)
- See everything in four dimensions and what are they? (61)
- Religion? (62)
- So much religion? (159)
- Be good? (71)
- Want to be better than right? (146)
- Be a good person in steps and what is the first step? (33)
- Ten ways to be a good person in step 2? (34)
- Be good for the payoff of step 3 and what is the payoff? (35)
- Establish priorities and what are mine? (95)
- Minds and mouths and what goes in and what comes out? (117)
- Keep a journal? (118)
- Be a family? (31)
- Have children? (126)
- Does time equal life equal family? (14)
- Set aside sacred time? (23)
- Find the meaning of sunlight? (134)
- Find the four things that make you happy and what are they? (139)
- Recall the wisdom of childhood? (145)
- Change the world and with what kinds of acts do it the most? (151)
- Accept this one gift and what is it? (39)
- Find the most precious gift and what is it? (128)
- We never want to fail the test and piss off Oprah? (48)
- Look for easy ways to be good and what are they? (54)
- Find 10 things to do every day to be happy and what are they? (92)
- Find 10 things not to do every day? (93)
- Discover both nature and grace? (101)
- Look at life as a blessed mess? (108)
- The shit that happens is holy shit? (89)
- Accept love and pain? (114)
- Take the practical solution to the problem of evil and what is it? (153)
- Bad days are good? (155)
- We need to be unhappy? (78)
- Do bad things happen to good people (160)
- Tell you about sex and what about it? (29)
- Be peaceful? (77)
- Seek peace and social justice? (76)
- Deal with difficult people? (84)
- Marry and what is the one word of advice about marriage you offer? (87)
- Want to be a saint? (99)
- Are the poor blessed? (123)
- Money? (46)
- Pay it forward is more important than pay it back? (143)
- Find the most important person in your life and who is he or she? (6)
- Be optimistic or pessimistic and which are you? (17)
- Live in the present? (18)
- Be concerned about self-esteem? (20)
- Have a one-minute to sanity plan and what is it? (24)
- Appreciate emptiness? (50)
- Appreciate the beauty in sadness? (125)
- It's possible to have joy in suffering? (100)
- Never and what, if any "nevers" do you recommend? (63)
- Be honest? (16)
- Is Honesty the single most important virtue? (79)
- Climb Jacob's ladder? (90)
- Burn the "I"? (97)
- Are we designed to burn? (157)
- Avoid anorexia of the soul? (102)
- Consider cheap psychiatry and what is it? (115)
- Confess? (116)
- Be unique? (132)
- Be logical about love? (53)
- Does truth lord over us? (60)
- Experiment with realistic thoughts and what experiments have you tried? (106)
- Be "liberal" or "conservative" and which are you? (112)
- Be pro-life or pro-choice and which are you? (120)
- Have reasons? (148)
- Have a one-minute, life-changing prayer and what is it? (8)
- Discover where good stuff comes from and where have you found it? (25)
- Forgive? (57) (91)
- Not hold grudges? (27)
- Make the four most important choices in your life and what are they? (37)
- Assent to divine grace in the midst of human freedom? (45)
- Laugh and what have you laughed about? (26)
- Give the best gift to your children and what is that gift? (86)
- Discover what we want most of all and what is it? (138)
- Communion works? (141)
- Not other issues? (140)
- Write the meaning of life in one sentence and what is that sentence? (12)
- Do poets write best and what example do you love best? (51)
- In the beginning was the Word and what or who is it? (58)
- Have prayers for children and what are some? (67)
- Be wiser, happier, and better in seven minutes and how? (104)
- Walls? (109)
- Four images of your life and what are they? (110)
- Play with God? (119)
- Trickle to the sea? (130)
- Seven questions with one answer? (152)
- Be simple-hearted? (158)
- Be tempted in old age and by what or whom? (55)
- Was Jesus a comedian and how? (59)
- Do all fathers fail, but one? (85)
- Is God a comedian? (105)
- Sacrifices? (129)
- Not Balance? (142)
- Is everything love? (5)
- Simplicity? (49)
- Simple things? (72)
- Be grateful? (82)
- No one ever uttered these 10 sentences on their deathbed and what are the sentences? (94)
- Be a mystic to the max and compare lessons from different religions? (98)
- Be holy? (107)
- Dying is easy? (122)
- God has children but no grandchildren? (133)
- Have a last word and what will it be? (162)
