Does the thought of death make you unhappy over and over again?

It can do sometimes.

I'll be pondering like I always do when not reading or learning and I'll think "I can't take this knowledge with me, what is the point in the time and expense spent in becoming more erudite and cerebral? It's all lost in the big wooden box along with me."

But then I think 'existence comes before essence'
To make my life meaningful and livable I must make those choices, create those projects for myself and practice those activities which have a purpose for me. Death may be one of the few absolute truths that exist but life is what I make of it. If I can carve an existence where I can be influential during my lifetime and after I'm gone, then that is the goal I will pursue in order to cope with the apparent absurdism of existence.

I think things in each of our stage sin life help to stave off the thought and fear of death.

Marriage, children, retirement are all joys in the average person's life that helps them live for the now and not look to the grave.

I think it's the years when we are widowed and forlorn as our kids have lives of their own that we begin to seriously contemplate our mortality.

But then again I'm only 24, what do I know.

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Originally Posted by Patrick_Bateman

It can do sometimes.

I'll be pondering like I always do when not reading or learning and I'll think "I can't take this knowledge with me, what is the point in the time and expense spent in becoming more erudite and cerebral? It's all lost in the big wooden box along with me."

But then I think 'existence comes before essence'
To make my life meaningful and livable I must make those choices, create those projects for myself and practice those activities which have a purpose for me. Death may be one of the few absolute truths that exist but life is what I make of it. If I can carve an existence where I can be influential during my lifetime and after I'm gone, then that is the goal I will pursue in order to cope with the apparent absurdism of existence.

I think things in each of our stage sin life help to stave off the thought and fear of death.

Marriage, children, retirement are all joys in the average person's life that helps them live for the now and not look to the grave.

I think it's the years when we are widowed and forlorn as our kids have lives of their own that we begin to seriously contemplate our mortality.

But then again I'm only 24, what do I know.

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I found becoming aware that I'd probably lived half of my life made the advent of death a realistic proposal different to the a simple awareness of death. Being able to appreciate the actual duration of your maximum lifespan brings it home somewhat. Prior to this it's a bit of an unknown. I remain cheerful though.
:biggrin5:

I kind of follow the Monty Python philosophy of "You come from nothing and go back to nothing- what have you lost?"

Life is free. Whatever I get out of it is more than I have any right to expect. I'm supposed to get upset that it won't last forever? I'll keep away from my gift horse's mouth and just appreciate that I've got it at all.

And maybe, just maybe, part of the reason I write is from a misdirected idea that it will make me live forever. The idea that my writing will live on after my death, preventing me from ever really disappearing. The idea that Plato, Shakespeare and Bach never really died because their ideas are still alive, they're still manipulating reality, and isn't that what life really is? Maybe that helps me deal with it as well.

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Originally Posted by blazeofglory

Do you forget death and live a fuller and merrier life all the while?

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Forgetting it all the time would be hard, for a number of reeasons: Part of my work involves safety issues, and the importance of doing things the correct way in order to avoid ending your life prematurely. I have found myself in life threatening situations and been lucky enough to be able to walk away from them relatively unscathed. I have also watched friends and relatives passing away. As a consequence I have the good sense to value life immensely, but at the same time I cannot say that I ponder or fear death as such ...much ...yet.

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Originally Posted by MarkBastable

Nope, I remember death and live a fuller and merrier life all the while.

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Well said. I fully agree.

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Originally Posted by OrphanPip

There are some horrible ways to die that I wouldn't want to experience.

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Exactly. It is the small matter of passing from the living to the dead that can be a bit unnerving.

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Originally Posted by OrphanPip

Luckily, I'm trying my hardest to be dead by 40 so as to avoid those.

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I think you may have changed your mind about that when you reach my age.:wink5:

/Claes

:party:

I thought I would be dead by 25...30...35...40...45...50...55.

60??????

Dying doesn't bother me very much at all. Suffering does, though. When I was flying, the thought of getting killed wasn't much of a big deal, but the thought of serious injury, of being maimed, was. Worse, in my humble opinion, is the thought of being alone.

So long as I exist, death is of no concern to me.

Maybe it is my ego but I have a hard time wrapping my mind around nothing. From an individual perspective there was nothing before I was born, and there will be nothing when I die. The universe will cease to exist.
Will there be, through the endless eons of time, another gathering of molecules that make another me? Or is this it? Could we be destine to repeat this very same life over and over?

I have thought about the possibilities.

If there were a replicator that could replicate my body perfectly, and someone pin-pricked him, would I feel it?

I've come very close to death twice, and now it holds no terrors for me, nor do I get depressed thinking about it. When it comes, it will come. No need to lose sleep over it.

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Originally Posted by Jassy Melson

I've come very close to death twice, and now it holds no terrors for me, nor do I get depressed thinking about it. When it comes, it will come. No need to lose sleep over it.

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Besides...We will have plenty of time to sleep after we are dead.

I've got people who are close to me with chronic health problems (young people too, one of them's only 27). The idea that one day I'll wake up and find them dead pops into my head and ruins my day pretty often. As for me dying, it used to bother me but now it doesn't for some reason.