**
And voila !!
I materialize again !
I’ll be more alive after I die than I ever was here on earth.
I won’t want to come back once I’m gone. Trade in heaven for another go down here in this sick, crazy, dangerous world? Ummm, no.
Personally, I’d prefer my death last just long enough so I can know it’s happening. I want to have that realization that this it. I’m gone. I’ll never eat again, never be harrassed at school again, never sit in front on the TV watching 60 Minutes and drinking Coke again, never take a dump again, never do anything again. It’s all over, and I’d finally be on my way to my last great adventure. I always imagined death as either 1)Being asleep forever, no consciousness, no thoughts, nothing, or 2)Eternal contentment.
An old proverb is what I’m reminded of:
“Do you spend much time worrying where you were before you were born? Then why do you worry about where you will be when you die?”
Nah, Death’s a Doper, he’s cool. Death, Destroyer of Worlds, you want to get in here and point Rookie to your thread? I’m too lazy.
Now for a serious answer - yes, I fear death greatly. I have ever since the fifth grade, when it actually struck me while I was at CTY that yes, I’m going to die, and there will be no more Mr. Excellent. I’m an aetheist, you see - I don’t believe that there’s any scientific, rational basis for belief in a God or afterlife. Nor do I believe that I will live to see any sort of “immortality” technology - and some of the options that get floated around are pretty unattractive in their own right. Being stored as a computer program, for example, would merely store an identical copy of me - the copy of Mr. Excellent that’s typing this would still die.
That said, there is still one way to cheat death as I see it: change things. Change them in such a way, on such a scale, that for a thousand years or more your name will echo through the corridors of history, and whatever comes even after your bones have turned to dust, historians will say “[Your name here] lived, and the world is forever a better place for it.”
Who said “The evil men do lives after them/ the good is oft interred with the bones”? That needn’t be so - and if you manage to shape the world, that’s your immortality.
Personally, I doubt my name will be so well-known - it’s not likely the name of Mr. Excellent will ever be on the same page as Julius Caesar or Hammurabi. But I can try, and I can hope, and that’s what gives my life meaning.
In short, the closest thing to immortality is for future generations to know that I was here. I lived, and what I did mattered.
I feel it safe to say that, as long as there is a human race, somewhere there will be a Mr. Excellent.
But seriously, sure - changing humanity in a way that leaves your name in the history books is one way to achieve a form of immortality - although even that is fleeting. There are but a few hundred people who left such a huge impression that their names will last through recorded history. I doubt Norman Mailer will be remembered in the year 3,000, y’know?
And even then, on the scale of the universe this just extends your impact by an tiny extra amount of time. There will come a time when all we have done, all we have created, will fade into undifferentiated atoms. Entropy, and all that.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the traditional way in which we seek immortality - by passing our genes on to our offspring. When I look at my daughter, I can see a lot of myself in her. She is part of me, and her children will be also, to a lesser extent. As long as my genetic line exists, some tiny part of what made me ‘me’ will continue through the human race.
But I maintain - the sum total of the universe you can ever perceive has you in it. You are immortal. There is no state of ‘death’ that we can possibly know. So don’t sweat it.
Hi Zoe
Thought I would second your post. Growing old changes the perspectives and values we place on things. No longer chase the brass ring and such. I also had a near death experience and feel no fear of death. Like most I wouldn’t want to leave this earth until my task is finished, but am ready anytime.
This world of illusion holds little value for me except to help others awaken to it.
Love
Leroy
I don’t fear the death of my body. When it’s time to cross over, I’ll embrace it.
I have a question for those who are atheists and/or do not believe they have a spirit. Have you ever witnessed another’s passing and stayed with them for a while?
I’m an atheist, and when I was an ambulance attendant, I witnessed a few deaths. It wasn’t like a close friend dying in my arms; more like a stranger, whom I was trying to take care of, dying on the stretcher in front of me. Why do you ask?
For the record, I’m not afraid of death. Now that I’ve learned how to be fairly happy, I no longer look forward to it as eagerly as I once did, but I’m ready anytime.
Every child is born kicking and screaming…sounds to me like we have all experienced the fear of birth - and lived through it quite well.
I imagine death will be the same terrifying leap of faith as birth.
If you want to know what death feels like, think of all the things you simply stopped doing, but didn’t realize at the time that it would be the last time.
When was the last time you skipped rope, climbed a tree, played hide-and-go-seek, played catch…little things, but parts of your life that are over without you even remembering that last time.
And someday, there will be that last trip trip to the grocery store and that last quart of milk in the fridge.
Well, I’m a Christian - Baptist, thanks, and I’m not at all afraid of the dead part. Kind of looking forward to it, in fact. I’m quite willing to wait another sixty years or so, however!
What I am afraid of is something slow, painful or scary along the way. I’d like a little warning. Time to burn the diaries, ya know? Just getting up to a hundred oughtta be warning enough. I don’t really need a terminal illness!
I’m not afraid of it, nor do I forsee anything beyond my death. I get what I get.
I have an ex-roommate who committed suicide. Twice. And was revived. Twice. He described odd disconnected bits of memory, all pleasant.
I disbelieve him, because he was OD’ing on drugs at the time- his body was crammed with euphorics.
Cartooniverse
I observed a number of things when our 19 month old grandson died (cancer). They either affirmed what I thought would be true or provided an insight on what I was not formerly aware of.
It’s hard to say if someone in your former position would have the luxury of such observations, but of course it’s possible. Were you able to observe any particular expression of their faces for instance?
Edlyn-
First, of course I’m very sorry to hear about your loss. No, I’ve certainly never experienced anything like that.
The only change in facial expression that I ever noticed was the apparent cessation of pain and fear. In cases of serious accidents, I suspect both believers and non-believers would observe that, though they would no doubt interpret it differently. I was a Christian at that time, if it matters.
I really like all the responses.
It helps ease the mind that others sometimes fear death also…
but not only death but the idea that we might cease to exist, cease to feel, think and not just losing our 5 physical senses…
I’m lucky to get a tiny taste of this through my job.
I work in a museum, and part of my job entails compiling records about artifacts. I get a little thrill knowing that 100 years from now, when I’m no more than a name on a stone, my work will still matter. My pages (each of which is signed and dated) will be referenced on a daily basis by future museum employees, and they’ll be grateful I did my work so carefully, just as I am grateful to Miss Jane Simons who was one of our few employees who kept careful records in the 1890s.
Every now and again I get a flash of a deeper understanding that I am going to cease to exist–Forever-for Real. It is more understanding than I usually have in day to day life. I would describe it as profound sadness. As far as fear, dying slowly and painfully is what I am afraid of. I guess a related question is are you living a life that is worthy to you of being your one shot in an infinity of not-being? It is hard if not impossible to live a life that doesn’t have trivial/mundane/stupid elements to it and is always being lived to the fullest (according to yourself). I don’t do it but I did quit watching TV for that reason among others. It just seems like such a waste of time/consciousness/life to me. Of course it is subjective as to what is a worthwhile way to spend your life. Sometimes I wonder if any way is really worthwhile (to me) or is it all just pointlessness in the sea of infinity. To wax poetic, all of life is like a dream that no one will remember. Here is hoping that is more of a good dream than a nightmare.
I don’t think humans in general have a very good grasp on the reality that they are going to die. Unless you dangle them over a cliff they seem as oblivious as most other mammals. I think that is sad because it causes (many of) us to devalue life and not really live it in a way that is worthy of it’s briefness, uniqueness (in terms of individuals) and apparent rarity in the universe.
Wow.
That is my philosophy entirely, but I’ve never met anyone else who feels the same way. Must be a Sam thing!
I don’t fear death, but I fear dying and leaving my family and the people that I love.
I suppose I also fear the unknown, and death is one of the greatest unknown’s.