# What's your motivation for putting up with the vicissitudes of life? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 20, 2015, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-motivation-for-putting-up-with-the-vicissitudes-of-life/718122 "2015-04-20T15:50:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2015, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-motivation-for-putting-up-with-the-vicissitudes-of-life/718122/21 "2015-04-20T21:43:03Z")
I have a hope that the future will be better. Not so much my life (although that will improve in bits and pieces, but it could also get worse. Who knows) but the world in general. I don’t know if I will live long enough for humanity to gain meaningful control over the brain and its wiring, but I’d like to live to see that. Our brains are wired to torture us mercilessly and I’d like to be alive when we know enough to shut that off. There is a saying about war ‘war is long periods of pure boredom interspersed with moments of sheer terror’. In a more subtle and less intense way that is what life is much of the time. Long periods of routine punctuated by random traumas to you and people you care about. ---
**Author:** ![shantih](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@shantih](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shantih)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2015, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-motivation-for-putting-up-with-the-vicissitudes-of-life/718122/22 "2015-04-20T22:02:52Z")
> [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](#): > > Interesting question. Should you put up with all the crap life has to offer, or pick up a weapon against said crap and just put a stop to it. Dying’s just going to sleep, and when it’s a sleep that conclusively ends the miseries and sufferings of existence, well, that’s something we’d want, surely? > > Dying’s just going to sleep – but what if you dream? And what kind of dreams will they be when there’s no waking up? Well, that’s the sticking point. Who’d put up with the taunts life has to offer, being put upon by people with more power, looked down their noses at by snobs, rejection, justice denied, jumped-up bureaucrats flexing their petty little muscles, when a sharp knife would put an end to it on the spot? Who’d slog their way through years of toil, if it weren’t that they don’t know what happens after we die (no-one comes back to tell us!) and we decide we’d rather stick with the evils we know rather than risk the unknown? > > So I guess if we’re honest we’re just cowards, and all these grand thoughts we have just wither away when we think about it for a few moments, and all our plans, when we think about it, turn away from actually getting put into practice. There’s more here than you could shake a spear at. What keeps me going? The belief that the parts of my life that aren’t so hot are going to get better and an appreciation for the parts of my life that give me a charge. An underlying feeling that life is worth living. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2015, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-motivation-for-putting-up-with-the-vicissitudes-of-life/718122/23 "2015-04-20T22:05:52Z")
There’s a couple of real assholes out there I intend to outlive out of shear spite if nothing else. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2015, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-motivation-for-putting-up-with-the-vicissitudes-of-life/718122/24 "2015-04-20T22:13:40Z")
I’ve been diabetic for over 20 years, never thought of losing my foot or anything else, just followed the Dr.'s advice. Not living will happen someday but I haven’t seen nearly enough yet, done nearly enough, or even read nearly enough. Call it motivation if you will but any alternative save dying is enough for me. ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2015, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-motivation-for-putting-up-with-the-vicissitudes-of-life/718122/25 "2015-04-20T22:35:19Z")
> [@](#): > > What’s YOUR motivation for putting up with the crap of daily life? What choice do I have? They won’t euthanize me. They took away my shotgun. etc. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2015, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-motivation-for-putting-up-with-the-vicissitudes-of-life/718122/26 "2015-04-20T22:38:20Z")
Tapioca pudding. I say that out of a vague memory of a Sissy Spacek movie (on TV) [Googled - it was\*\* 'night, Mother\*\*]. Her character was planning her suicide the whole movie and her mother was trying to argue her out of it. At one point her character said something about there being nothing worth living for, and that it didn’t even need to be something big. If she really liked and looked forward to tapioca pudding, that would have been enough. Well, I have a tendency to enjoy little things. Tapioca pudding needs a dollop of whipped cream to be worth living for, but that’s easy to arrange. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2015, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-motivation-for-putting-up-with-the-vicissitudes-of-life/718122/27 "2015-04-20T22:49:54Z")
For me, it’s my endless curiousity. There’s always one more thing I need to look up, or one more book I need to read, movie I need to watch, or music I need to hear. When I stop being curious, it’s time to throw in the towel. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2015, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-motivation-for-putting-up-with-the-vicissitudes-of-life/718122/28 "2015-04-20T23:06:37Z")
I might win the Powerball. ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2015, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-motivation-for-putting-up-with-the-vicissitudes-of-life/718122/29 "2015-04-20T23:12:26Z")
I like the sensation of existence. I like breathing in sea air, I like dewy grass tickling my bare feet, I like the feeling of cold water running down my throat. I like music and books and darkness and sunlight and food and writing and that chirping sound my cat makes when I pet her. And I like being _me_. The sense that no matter what happens, I will always have the same consciousness, the same thoughts, the same existence. I don’t think there’s an afterlife. I mean, I can’t be sure, but I doubt it. So all we have is infinite nothingness on either side, stretching out and out and out, and in the middle of it all this minute little speck of consciousness that we’re experiencing right now. I want to get as much out of the ride as possible. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-motivation-for-putting-up-with-the-vicissitudes-of-life/718122/30 "2015-04-21T00:01:09Z")
_ **VENGEANCE!** _ That, and the upcoming continuation of _Twin Peaks_. But yeah, mostly vengeance. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-motivation-for-putting-up-with-the-vicissitudes-of-life/718122/31 "2015-04-21T00:17:03Z")
Hanging out with friends, family, and as-yet unannounced future Kesha concerts and albums ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-motivation-for-putting-up-with-the-vicissitudes-of-life/718122/32 "2015-04-21T00:26:48Z")
I’ve never seen a volcano up close, or been to Australia, or played the bagpipes, or gone to a World Series game, or woken up to hear on the news that SETI found an intelligent signal, or that somebody has gone ahead and bred that dino-chicken thing, or seen a live kabuki show, or… ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-motivation-for-putting-up-with-the-vicissitudes-of-life/718122/33 "2015-04-21T22:00:44Z")
> [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](#): > > Interesting question. Should you put up with all the crap life has to offer, or pick up a weapon against said crap and just put a stop to it. Dying’s just going to sleep, and when it’s a sleep that conclusively ends the miseries and sufferings of existence, well, that’s something we’d want, surely? > > Dying’s just going to sleep – but what if you dream? And what kind of dreams will they be when there’s no waking up? Well, that’s the sticking point. Who’d put up with the taunts life has to offer, being put upon by people with more power, looked down their noses at by snobs, rejection, justice denied, jumped-up bureaucrats flexing their petty little muscles, when a sharp knife would put an end to it on the spot? Who’d slog their way through years of toil, if it weren’t that they don’t know what happens after we die (no-one comes back to tell us!) and we decide we’d rather stick with the evils we know rather than risk the unknown? > > So I guess if we’re honest we’re just cowards, and all these grand thoughts we have just wither away when we think about it for a few moments, and all our plans, when we think about it, turn away from actually getting put into practice. Nicely done. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-motivation-for-putting-up-with-the-vicissitudes-of-life/718122/34 "2015-04-22T02:18:11Z")
I guess I’m with **Skald**. I’m in constant pain. I wish that I didn’t live in a state of pain, but I choose to do so because I choose to be with my family. I choose to remain with my husband. I choose to raise my children. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-motivation-for-putting-up-with-the-vicissitudes-of-life/718122/35 "2015-04-22T02:43:00Z")
In-between all the crap I manage to pack in loads of fun. Bikes, amusement parks, shooting, fishing and generally acting as immature as possible. When I can’t do any of that anymore, all I need to do is skip my nitro a couple times when the elephant visits and its off to the Happy Hunting grounds. All in all, not a bad deal in total. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-motivation-for-putting-up-with-the-vicissitudes-of-life/718122/36 "2015-04-22T03:06:40Z")
I need to know who is going to win the dancing ball this year. I can hardly wait to see what they are going to do with House of Cards Next season. And I’m most eager to see my grand children grow up. I’ve also promised myself a road trip back to Florida when I retire. Pretty excited for that too. ---
**Author:** ![rivulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rivulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rivulus)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-motivation-for-putting-up-with-the-vicissitudes-of-life/718122/37 "2015-04-22T03:11:22Z")
Currently, it’s mostly the kids. They need me. I can’t imagine breaking their little hearts by abandoning them. But even when I didn’t have them, I’ve always had this (incredibly annoying) spark of hope that makes me wonder if life might, somehow, someday, rise above the pain and anguish of living it, above the dreadful mundanity of the everyday slog, to something just a little better. Maybe even with moments of contentment. Milliseconds of joy. Or the feeling of the sheer awesomeness of the universe. When I get seriously depressed, that spark is a major pain in the ass. 99.9% of me just wants to be done with it all. But this stupid, meddling 0.1% keeps popping up and interfering. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-motivation-for-putting-up-with-the-vicissitudes-of-life/718122/38 "2015-04-22T06:16:24Z")
Am I allowed to answer even though my life doesn’t suck, and about the worst thing about it is traffic? Which won’t be a problem after I retire. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-motivation-for-putting-up-with-the-vicissitudes-of-life/718122/39 "2015-04-22T15:29:42Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > What’s YOUR motivation for putting up with the crap of daily life? The good stuff outweighs the crap. Why _wouldn’t_ I put up with it?\* \*rhetorical question, not directed at **Skald** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-motivation-for-putting-up-with-the-vicissitudes-of-life/718122.md?page=1)