by Doug Howard

Created on: March 01, 2007   Last Updated: August 27, 2009

To Will or Not to Will...

I wrote my will last night. Didn't quite finish it, but came close. I am not ill or feeling particularly morose. I simply have been putting it off for ages and finally surrendered to the task. I have been the executor of two estates thus far, and one would think that after those experiences, and the chaos involved in poorly constructed estate planning, that it would have prompted me sooner. But I simply viewed the chore to be exactly that... a chore and boring.

However, once I actually sat down and started the process, having logged onto one of those "Will-O-Matic" sites that abound on the net, I found it to be actually quite entertaining. What a great opportunity. For $19.00 I can say whatever I want, make whatever demands that I choose, and the law says that my executors have the obligation to listen to my nonsense and carry out my wishes no matter how ridiculous, if they want to get paid.

Now while I have a knack for living well, I am not a rich man. My insurance will afford my wife the standard ability to "survive me" (in more ways than one when you think about it). She'll become another one of those widows who is tearfully described in the obituaries and eulogies as devastated by my passing, while she fills out the travel forms on Expedia.com, and I deny her none of it. She put up with me. She deserves it.

But that aside, I have not much in the way of a fortune to leave behind. No bequests to build new libraries at any universities, no endowments to educate the deprived, no legacy that will save the Northern Myopic Bog Owl, or enough to have my name engraved on one of those well ignored benefactor plaques you see in museums, theaters and on restored park benches. No, I have enough to throw a party and to keep my kids from a future of trailer parks and shopping at Thursday "Check Day" specials at Wal-mart, but that's about it. Outside of my stuff.

My stuff. Often times I bumble about my house looking for "something" only to end up finding another "something" that I was looking for in a previous bumbling, but could never find at the time but now of course I do... long after I made do with a different "something" that I found, and finally become determined in my frustration that I really will get rid of everything in one massive yard sale and start all over again. Yes, I will! But of course, I make do with the alternate "something" and never get around to it. Death however clears this up quite nicely. Not only do other people have

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