Imagine for a moment, that you shall never die. The thought of growing old, weary or slow was nothing short of a distant memory; time would become meaningless, there would simply be no need for it - what would be the rush? You’ll always have tomorrow (quite literally). The fear of God and religion would become rather trivial as we wouldn’t exactly be able to rise from the dead on the day of judgment; war would have a completely different meaning; the struggle for power would become ever more prevalent, giving birth to a new meaning of the term ‘tyrannical dictator’; and the constant onslaught of days would dilute the inner desire to live a just, and meaningful existence. It would certainly give an alternative perspective to the term YOLO (You Only Live Once) - the statement’s denotation couldn’t be more true, but its fundamental connotation would lose its vitality. I believe that the notion of death, that one day this life will be up and you won’t get another shot at it, is the reason for its beauty and meaning.
1 in 400 trillion. They’re the odds of you actually existing according to Mel Robinson’s 2011 TedTalk. In another, rather more frank way of delivering the same message, the chances of you being born is practically zero - depending on hundreds of your ancestors meeting, surviving and defeating predators and opposing tribes, having intercourse, and raising healthy children which again, repeat the cycle, hundreds and hundreds of times. On top of the odds of your mere existence, a number which is almost unfathomable to the human mind, is accompanied with death being the only thing that is promised to you in this life. And looking at that, I strongly feel you have a duty to make your life meaningful - meaningful to you.
“Create a ladder of values and priorities in your life, reminding yourself of what really matters to you.” - Robert Greene.
The word ‘meaningful’ in relation to living, or the term ‘a good life’ are completely overused, and in this day and age, can make you sound like some motivational, life-coach guru preying upon people to buy their new ‘revolutionary’ e-book. I use the term with utter transparency and sincerity - for something to become or be meaningful to you, it must be important to YOU - something you are willing to protect or stand up for. People fall into the trap of living in the shoes of another, be that your parents or friends or even the path society has told you to travel down, and then of course, life loses all meaning - to use the cliche, you really haven’t lived at all, because that isn’t you. It’s a fake persona people sculpt and perfect to fit perfectly in line with what others want for them. In the words of Robert Greene to create a life worth living: “Create a ladder of values and priorities in your life, reminding yourself of what really matters to you.”
“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” - Friedrich Nietzsche.
What matters to you - money, fame, health, family, happiness? To be honest, it really doesn’t matter (as long as it won’t harm others in society, of course!), but create a list and learn to say no to anything that doesn’t align with any of your values. And this is where death creating meaning comes into play. The words of Nietzsche, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” Become evermore prominent and true as you venture through this game we call life, but why is that? I believe its precisely to do with the fact that this life does not go on forever. There is an end to this existence, and no amount of money, fame or power can save any soul from this inevitable fate. But its within finding true meaning, something that is valuable to you, which allows you to escape dying twice - first, surviving as a living corpse and second, when you actually leave this world behind. For that reason, it is the notion of death that gives meaning to the word life, and in the absence of death, we really would be an entity, utterly lifeless and uninteresting. I will leave you with some food for thought from the brilliant works of Victor Frankl, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Curious Minds Make Interesting People.
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