'I'm an anesthesiologist, retired now for about 8 years I have never enjoyed my stereo system as much as I do now. I had a deal going on a few months back where I thought it likely I had lung cancer. Although having had tricky stuff in the past, I had a couple months there to consider my likely mortality until it turned out to be an over-diagnosis. Still, with my background I knew exactly what all that could mean, death being not the worst of it. The preceding measures were the real threat. I don't know about you, but now is the time to enjoy your life, what you have, and maximize what you get out of it. On the whole, your relatives and friends likely won't give a you know what about your stuff. Financially it isn't going to amount to a hill of beans at the end. Should you have knowledgable friends, tell them up front what is for them, even better put it in writing. Then you just forget about it. Give your wife or kid a contact thing for TMR or whatever, then enjoy the heck out of what you have. You will find your appreciation level has gone way up. More important than your gear is your relationship to your loved ones. We all have unfulfilled things in that area, and you have the opportunity to settle some items you may have avoided. In other words, get your mind clear and do not feel sorry for yourself. Audiogon is not the forum for this.
God, I hate to ask this…
Recent conversations with the oncologist have been replete with phrases like ‘stage 4’,metastasis’ and unappealing statistics applied to survival rates. While my real and financial affairs are well settled I am most perplexed with how to approach this large pile of audio stuff e.g. 3 secondary systems in addition to the primary one, several thousand lp’s, a similar number of CD’s/SACD’s, a closet full of cable etc. I am utterly confident that I am not alone in this. While I am comfortable that my wife will love and care for my dog I am less confident that the Avantgardes will elicit such emotional investment. Although my immediate inclination is to cling desperately to these treasured objects it seems patently unfeeling to expect someone else to deal with all of this. My wife will have enough to do. I could just divest myself of much of it and depend on the collection of headphones that I began to amass during the first illness. I really don’t want to do this. I would also like to pre-bequeath much of it to friends assuming that they wanted it but all of them have been adamant in their refusal to discuss this with me and probably will remain so until the 11th hour. As childlike as it seems, I am emotionally invested in these fruits of a lifelong passion and want them to end up where they will be respected and loved . This seems to be a juncture that we will all come to. I would be grateful to hear the contemplations that all you have had in this, admittedly, sobering matter.
To all of you, good cheer and good health.