Now see, as someone formerly raised as a fundamental religionist, that would be heaven (hehehe) to me. Anything is better than the promise of eternal fire and damnation and re-runs of Growing Pains. :eek:
The thing that struck me most about being in the apartment when both my dad and my stepmom had died was that here were all these things. Stuff. Items but no people. Peculiar, that.
Since I won’t be leaving my genetic material to continue, I thought I might set up a bursary or something like that at the ol’ alma mater.
Another vote here for the “Do You Realize” by the Flaming Lips!! That’s a happy-tears song, and one of my favorite pieces of music. Another one is Death Cab For Cutie, “I Will Follow You Into the Dark.” I contemplate my own mortality far more often than what I percieve is normal for a healthy less-than-30-year-old. I do know one thing, though…I can’t wait!! I’m excited to find out what it’s like. BUT, and I have to stress this, I am not a depressed/suicidal/emo/whatever person. I’m not in a hurry to off myself just to see what it’s like. (I know a few people gave Autolycus a hard time for even starting this thread.) I’m just a very curious person, and death is really the last big unknown of our lives.
Just my couple’a pennies.
Why?
I have a theory that there are many who don’t, but they keep quiet about it, quite happy to perpetuate the myth. If it were commonly known, then the poor saps who DO end up dying would get all put out. 
I might die, but I’m going to give it all I’ve got not to. Will see how it turns out.
\
I cant tell if you’re worried about me or trying to take a pot-shot at me, or both. In any case, I will reiterate that you dont need to worry. Really. Please cease and desist.
Getting back on topic, I want to live to 110. I think that’s a nice, appropriate age to kick the bucket.
It freaked out Philip Larkin too: -
…And specious stuff that says No rational being
Can fear a thing it will not feel, not seeing
That this is what we fear – no sight, no sound,
No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,
Nothing to love or link with,
The anaesthetic from which none come round…
The whole poem can be found here. It’s a gloomy masterpiece.
You might die, but at least you don’t have to experience your own death.
I’ve been considering starting a thread about this for a while, thanks Autolycus!
During the last 3 months, I’ve had these strange, intermittent ‘waves’ of dread about my eventual demise wash over me at seemingly random times. Prior to this, I had always felt the same as Antinor01, Pizzabrat and others- “everyone dies, so will I, that’s a part of life.” Now I find myself ever so often feeling panicked about the idea of death- not the physical so much as the utter obliteration and irrevocability of it. Because I’ve always been pretty philosophical/casual about death, these feelings of fear and dread are really bothering me. Not only do I feel terrified, I also feel irritated with myself for getting worked up over something that’s really OK. Interestingly, the first time this happened was in my Lit class while we were reading Yeats’ Fiddler of Dooney. When I read the line about Saint Peter at the Gate, it was like the full realization came over me of what my lack of belief means- there is no heaven for me, nothing ‘special’ to look forward to after I die, which I surely will in time. I felt like I was going to pass out right there in class. It didn’t make me want to believe, it just freaked me out. I think this is also related to my desire not to breed- my genes are trying to blackmail me in to passing them on! (kidding)
Ever since then, I’ll be sitting around watching TV or lying in bed with my boyfriend, and these chills come over me. I have decided that the way to deal with it is to look at it like an intense fear of heights (which I’ve never had, but I sympathize with those who do) or any other phobia- it is founded in rational apprehension- like a fear of heights which can be dangerous, a fear of death as the ultimate unknown and as the end of my biological processes makes sense, but I can’t let it control my life. While I can’t just back away from the ledge of mortality, I’ve found that working in my studio and with centuries- old prints at my museum internship are both ways to feel more comfortable again. In my studio I am creating tangible evidence of my presence that may theoretically outlive me. At the museum I am connected to the culture and people of past who are dead, but whose work and passions live on (in part through me in the work I do there.)
Something else that I try to keep in mind is that I’m 24 and in my last semester of college, graduating in 2 months with a more or less useless degree (but great portfolio and resume if I do say so myself) and faced with some big decisions about the rest of my life. Mostly I’m trying to ignore the whole thing, but it’s really bizarre to suddenly have a new phobia that pops up without warning.
Huh. Maybe I’m not all that emotional, or maybe I’m comforted by my religion, or something, but I’m not scared of dying or being dead. I mean, I have all the usual animal instincts about avoiding it, and I’d like to live for a good long time and do lots of stuff before the big dirt nap, but it doesn’t fill me with existential horror. I guess because I realize that when I’m dead, I won’t know any different. The thing that I’m mainly queasy about is a difficult or protracted death, where I can’t take advantage of what’s left of my life after I become aware that death is imminent.
That’s just the thing- I feel the same way 90% of the time and I have for as long as I’ve known what ‘death’ is. It’s just recently that all this irrational panic has erupted and the fact that I’m afraid is almost worse than the fear itself. Also, I still think I’d pick being dead once and for all over a long, drawn-out dying procedure of heroic medicine, and I’ve indicated this to all of my close family members in various conversations (in the case of my mother and I, we have a mutual pact about making sure that our wishes in this area are carried out. Nothing drastic, just a firm ‘no major intervention with little chance for good quality of life’ type thing- she’s my next of kin and I’m her eldest child, and I have the balls to stand up to the rest of her family to do what’s right, though I earnestly hope it never comes to that type of decision for either of us. The whole Terri Schaivo tragedy got us talking a while back, if you’re wondering how we came to this agreement.)
ETA: “existential horror” is exactly the phrase I’ve been trying to find. It sure sucks and doesn’t have a whole lot of utility, as far as I can see…
For me the reality of my death has pretty much always been easy to accept.
If there is any fear for me, it lies in the manner of my demise. So many different ways to go. Given a choice of ‘Slow and Painful’ or ‘Unexpectedly Quick and Painless’ I’d choose the later any day of the week.
But, in the long run, what I really want is to not die in vain.
I want my death to have some meaning.
Even if it only serves as a lesson to someone else.
In other words, what I’d really like is to have my exit from this mortal world to qualify for one of these …
:smack:
Lucy
Logically we shouldnt be afraid of dying cos we either wont experience it ,or if it does turn out that there is a life after death then we wont really be dead.(and wont I feel silly !)
I think part of it is the basic futility of everything we have achieved in life and those things we pretend to our selves we still want.
Once your dead it doesnt make any difference to you if you were King of all the universe or at the other end of the scale a lifelong Man.Utd.supporter.
You wont know about it.
It does seem sometimes that we re keeping ourselves busy with pointless activity to take our minds off of the inevitable.
For those without a religous faith to comfort them but who say they really do believe they re going to die but it doesnt worry them I am skeptical.
What they actually mean is that they know that they are theoretically going to die but not now and for them the now never arrives.
I ll bet if they were lined up against the wall and told that they were going to be executed within the next few minutes but that it doesnt matter because they have come to terms with their mortality theyd be fouling their pants in between begging for their lives.
Well I hope thats cheered you all up !and now I must get back to my job at “Exit”.