Oh, look, a Winter Storm Warning, starting at 10 a.m. tomorrow, when I Fully Expect to be at the grocery store, if I’m not at the vet’s office with Mozart. (Good wishes and prayer wheel spinnings for Mozart, please. He’s decided that baby food is even kind of a chore to eat. We think (hope) he’s got something going with his mouth that maybe the vets can fix. They’re cautious, and reasonably so, about putting a 15 year old cat under anesthesia. On the other hand, baby food shouldn’t be that tough to chew…)
So, anyhow, 3-6 inches of snow expected from 10 a.m. tomorrow through 10 p.m. tomorrow night. The good news is that the projected temperatures are higher; the original forecasted temps would have almost been too cold for snow…
But, that’s not why I called y’all here today.
What I’d like to know is, Would you want to live forever?
Or, alternatively, Why would someone want to live forever — absent, OK, a Deathless Enemy who must be pursued and neutralized, or Science! or True Love or Fear of Eternal Damnation — though we’re starting to get thin, here, by my reckoning. At some point, I think, one would become So Weary that even the threat of Eternal Damnation might not trump the wish to simply lie down the burden and sleep.
This may, I note, Just Be Me.
And I will, in fairness, also note that we deal with at least two Deathless in our work. What seems to keep them going is Their Work, and they are fortunate, that their work is infinitely variable.
But, given your everyday guy who happens to be a vampire, or who otherwise has to perform some vile act in order to NOT DIE, when their lives seem to be, aside the quest to NOT DIE, pointless or without purpose. Why does that person want to live forever?
I want to know everything, but alas, I’m human, so learning takes a while. Plus I want to use that knowledge. Use and grow, learn and progress.
This is why the need for sleep annoys me.
I want to have time to do/make/write all the things I’d love to finish. I don’t have the years no matter how carefully I parse out the time or edit the list. I don’t think I’d want to live forever, but maybe four or five lifetimes?
The older I get the more I understand why many if not most old people are at peace about death. I used to think it was more experience and acceptance. I begin to wonder more if indeed they have ‘been there, done that’ and the driving will for life starts ebbing away. Not depression or suicidal, simply tired and okay about it. So I can’t help you, I do not want to live forever. Now… freeze me and wake me up in 200 yrs… yeah, I’d sign up for that.
For many years I’ve been observing how our
Civilization has changed and I would love to be around to
Continue watching. Sometimes I marvel and sometimes
I despair but I never get bored. I think my long
View comes from reading Robert Heinlein as a
Youngster. Remember Lazarus Long?
Well, what makes me want to go on is curiosity about what happens next and I suppose when that goes, the will to continue goes. It may be loss of interest or it may be, with the author of Ecclesiastes, one reaches the point where there really is nothing new under the sun.
Of course the desire to die, as opposed to the loss of the will to continue living, is always the desire to escape torture. I consider the acceptance of death as different from the desire to die.
Helpful?
As long as I was healthy I would want to be immortal. I visit care home with the dogs and run into a lot of people who are tired and are waiting for the end. But there are also people at the facilities who are vibrant and involved in their lives. It seems to be a combination of physical woes and attitude. My mother who is 87 doesn’t drive now and uses a walker. But visited Hawaii last month and competes fiercely in the baking division of the state fair every year. She is on inspiration to me.
I think most characters that jump through hoops to never die have not really thought through the consequences. What they really want is to not die now (or soon.)
I no longer want to live forever…but I would like to know how the story ends.
Some rather disjointed meditations on the topic:
Remember that cultural expectations of lifespan have changed. When people only lived to the ripe old age of forty, I imagine some couldn’t visualize what they would do with another forty years. Another thing I have observed is that people are more accepting, even welcoming of the end, if their general health is poor. If everything hurts, a possible escape starts to look attractive.
People who remain intellectually curious and outgoing don’t obsess about outliving all their friends, they make new ones and find new interests.
Another way of looking of the issue is that the universe doesn’t owe you squat, no matter what your age. Realizing that we can be ambushed by an errant microbe or run over by a bus at any point, we muddle through as best we can for our own personal satisfaction and as the song says, “The only measure of your words and your deeds is the love you leave behind you when you’re done.”
UGH I would NOT want to be immortal – especially if I were alone in my immortality. But either way, it sounds like more like a curse than a treasure. I do NOT want to live forever – not a bit. And I have a fine, happy, healthy life. It just sounds boring as all get out to keep living it forever. NO thank you.