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News & ArtsTuesday, January 22, 2013
Death / Life The Things That Keep Me Up at Night
Posted by Anna Minard on Tue, Jan 22, 2013 at 5:03 PM
Just a little angst-inducing quote to finish up the workday, as another day grows darker and fades away...
We don’t have a choice. You are older at this moment than you’ve ever been before, and it’s the youngest you’re ever going to get. The mortality rate is holding at a scandalous 100 percent.
Thanks a lot, NYT Anxiety blog.
2
Of course if you figure out a way to stick around as long as you can, you get to watch your enemies get buried. There is that.
5
"Don't take life too serious, son...it ain't nohow a permanent condition." - Porky Pine (from Walt Kelly's Pogo)
11
Death is real. There is no afterlife. This moment is all you will ever have.
Extinction is real. Our species will someday go the way we individuals all go. Our history will be utterly meaningless once the last human dies.
Makes you wonder what all the fuss is about, doesn't it?
religion works to make these civilizations, these empires, these countries, these nations appear to be worth investing time and energy into. Science helps us cadge a few extra decades beyond what we'd live to be without it. But in the end, none of that means a thing. Once you're gone, you're gone. And once this species is gone, all memory of you will fade as well.
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Extinction is real. Our species will someday go the way we individuals all go. Our history will be utterly meaningless once the last human dies.
Makes you wonder what all the fuss is about, doesn't it?
religion works to make these civilizations, these empires, these countries, these nations appear to be worth investing time and energy into. Science helps us cadge a few extra decades beyond what we'd live to be without it. But in the end, none of that means a thing. Once you're gone, you're gone. And once this species is gone, all memory of you will fade as well.
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
13
Fear of death is misguided. What you really fear is the inherent meaninglessness of life. Death, finality, is really the only thing that slightly redeems that meaninglessness. You're going to die, so you better enjoy it while you can. If it wasn't finite the meaninglessness would be (more) overwhelming.
14
Only when one sees the emptiness of existence can a person finally be happy.
Great Shelley quote @11. One of my favorites.
Great Shelley quote @11. One of my favorites.
17
One of my all time favorite bits by Christopher Hitchens, about this whole "afterlife party" thing and why it probably wouldn't be as great as they make it out to be:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ0eOUVny…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ0eOUVny…
18
Once you are dead, you feel no more pain. That's what they tell us to comfort the living. But what if they're wrong/
What if, while your body decays, the nerve endings still work for a while? What if we can feel the worms as they crawl through our sockets? What is the moment of death is not a moment, but a gradual experience?
In life, has there ever been a sudden, immediate transformation of our senses? Isn't it more true that such transformations take place over time? Why not also in death?
i wonder if there's enough spar left in the decaying grey matter to bring us to realize our predicament as the mourners are shoveling dirt onto our coffins? Or as the flames cremate our remains? What if we no longer have the ability to say or do anything about it, but we are fully aware of our decay?
That's the kind of shit that keeps me up at night.
What if, while your body decays, the nerve endings still work for a while? What if we can feel the worms as they crawl through our sockets? What is the moment of death is not a moment, but a gradual experience?
In life, has there ever been a sudden, immediate transformation of our senses? Isn't it more true that such transformations take place over time? Why not also in death?
i wonder if there's enough spar left in the decaying grey matter to bring us to realize our predicament as the mourners are shoveling dirt onto our coffins? Or as the flames cremate our remains? What if we no longer have the ability to say or do anything about it, but we are fully aware of our decay?
That's the kind of shit that keeps me up at night.
20
It tells us that this life is not a story or an adventure or a journey of spiritual self-discovery; it’s a slog.Bingo.
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p.s. @18, there's an earlier piece by Kreider I bet will speak to you pretty strongly, then. It sure did to me.
Worry is not productive; it’s a kind of procrastination. I like to pretend worry is passive, something your brain does when it’s trapped and helpless, but it’s more often a way to avoid taking some direct action that would be frightening, difficult, inconvenient or boring, like drawing up a monthly budget or doing sit-ups or finally just summoning up the nerve to ask someone What, exactly, The Deal Is. Worrying can turn into one of those problems that prevents itself from getting solved, the way that pornography can if you’d rather stay home watching it than go out and meet somebody.http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/201…
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So much of life is beyond our control, which, considering all the bad behaviors, is probably for the better. And death doesn't seem so unpalatable as you get old. The body grows inflexible and uncontrollable. And life long problems grow so tiring. But there is one thing that follows the way the universe works. Reincarnation. The universe recycles. Without death, there is no life. So, when you die in this life, you may find yourself hatching from an egg in the next.
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@18 I'm comforted by what we can measure with science and science-based medicine. Neural activity, including brain activity, is exquisitively sensitive to blood flow/oxygen and often is the first thing to cease when you're dying. Not to worry about feeling anything when you're dead, I promise.
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