Let's Get Morbid

Kobe Bryant’s death reminded his fans and non-fans alike that life is fragile. It is temporary. We’re all simply passing through. The “to get where" and “why” are, and always will be, a mystery. The “for how long” is different for everyone. But what if you only had one more day to live?

That’s the premise of Genki Kawamura’s "If Cats Disappeared from the World." A young postman is diagnosed with Stage 4 brain cancer. When he comes home from his doctor’s appointment, he’s surprised to see the Devil is in his living room. Even worse, the devil tells him he is going to die tomorrow. The two strike a deal, and the postman will make one thing disappear from the world in exchange for one more day of life. He can make as many things disappear, one a day, for as many more days he wants to live.

"If Cats Disappeared from the World" makes the reader ponder what matters and what doesn’t. Are our lives cluttered by gadgets we don’t actually need? Are we spending time making someone else’s dream come true? If fidget spinners disappeared from the world, would anyone really care? Sure, it’d be a bummer, and someone would be a whole lot poorer, but what are the odds the general public would actually miss fidget spinners. How about chocolate? Cats?

The book forces the reader to come to terms with life’s fragility. To try and do this himself, the postman makes a list of ten things he wants to do before he dies, and it has inspired me to make my own bucket list.

So, here are ten things I want to do before I die:

1. Fall in love (and have it last)

2. Travel around Alaska

3. Get published in a major publication, like The New York Times or L.A. Times

4. Spend a summer in Italy, with a big, floppy hat in one hand and an Aperol Spritz in another

5. Adopt as many dogs as I can afford (Shotty the names Pesto and Gnocchi)

6. Make it as an E:60 Reporter at ESPN and write a story that changes someone’s life

7. Get sponsored by Cheez-It or Pacifico for no other reason than I am fully faithful and have an undying love for the product

8. Watch the Jets win a Super Bowl (or the Knicks a national championship)

9. Go hot air ballooning in Turkey

10. Have an impact on someone in the industry that he/she actually wants to interview me for his/her story