Another good get to know you question

In a previous post I shared my take on the sorts of questions people ought to ask each other when they meet rather than the standard "what do you do for a living" sorts of questions.

Here's an opinion piece from the WSJ on Obama titled "What Would Obama Die For?" I'm not that interested in the content of the piece but I think it's a great question to ask people in an effort to really understand what they're all about and whether you could be friends with them.

Yes, it's a bit ghoulish and I'm not advocating whipping that one out right out of the gate. But, in the end, it may be the best way to demonstrate our essence. That which we prefer or value a lot could, arguably, be considered merely instrumental to our own well-being. But that for which we would sacrifice our life to protect, is our highest ideal and it is our lives that are mere instruments thereof.

I don't think people ought to spend too much time contemplating what they would die for. But I think some amount of introspection on this important question is a good idea. Making it up as you go along is not an intelligent way to live life. And having some sense of what you stand for (and, therefore, what you do not stand for) is an enviable position to be in.

Oh and by the way, dying for anything when you could serve it just as well by losing an eyelash or even a finger is just plain stupid.