I think the reason most people worry about death is not that they’re afraid of the death process and what will happen to them afterward, but that once they realize it’s about to happen, they’ll have to come to terms with the fact that they didn’t really do everything with their life that they wanted to, and now time is up. But priorities change as you get older, and things take on a new perspective.
I used to think that I couldn’t die until I became the frontman in a rock band, or had a three-way with beautiful twin sisters, or won the lottery and became a multi-millionaire overnight. But now sometimes when I come home at night, and my kids run to the door saying “Daddy!!” and jump into my arms to give me a hug and kiss, and my wife is there and we have a glass of wine and sit down to the dinner she’s prepared, and happiness is all around, I think that there’s nothing else that I would ever need to experience to be eternally happy.
I come here to escape reality, and you breeze in reminding me I have a Statistics exam on monday to prepare for over easter weekend. A pox upon thee, Mr. Meacham.
And even more sobering… when you’re dead, you’re dead. Pfft! No afterlife, no valhalla, heaven, hell, what-have-you. No reincarnation. Just a dissipation of energy and dissolution of the body over time.
I am 100% convinced tha 90% of all people don’t “get” this simple fact although everyone can parrot it. One piece of evidence is the shock that people express when some public figure dies. It just isn’t that shocking. You and everyone you knoware going to be in that position one day. We are just working out the line and some people cut.
I want to change the name of the “Death Penalty” to the “Early Exit Program”. The new name more accurately reflects what is happening.
When you reach 30 or so, you’ve already hit your peak, and probably don’t know it. From there, your eyesight will dim, your hearing will worsen, your memory will fade, your digestive tract will become less tolerant, your joints will stiffen, your muscles will hurt more, and all those injuries bad enough to scar you will make themselves known again. Your body will slowly deteriorate until this process kills you. You’ve had the ride, it’s all downhill from here.
I asked my doctor one day about how my night vision wasn’t so good anymore. His was response was ‘Well, you’re getting old.’ I was appalled. Old? I was only 30. Not even half my life expectancy!. You mean that was it? That back there, that was the best my body will ever be? Oh shit, that’s seriously fucked up. I’m not taking this aging thing well.
Prove it. There are billions of people alive who have not died. Forget the stats,there are more people alive than ever existed ,therefore I do not see the proof.
When you’re young (teens and 20’s) you know it’s true but you don’t really think it’s going to happen to you any more than you think you’re going to get really old.
It’s like when they ask a celebrity what they’d do if they weren’t in the entertainment industry and they say something idiotic like they’d make soap.
They know that people do that sort of thing but they never seriously consider that* they* could be anything other than rich and famous.
Anyway, when I was younger (in my 20’s and 30’s) death didn’t really bother me that much. I always thought I would accept it when it came. After all, what choice did I really have?
Lately though (I’m 41, if it matters) I’ve been much more bothered by my own mortality. I don’t know why.
I see on preview that Kythereia beat me to the quote I wanted to post. I’ll post this quote instead, although I can’t remember who said it:
Living healthy is really just dying as slowly as possible.
