What,Ya Wanna Live Forever?

Good morning, class.

"Good morning, sir."

Today we are going to talk about death & neat things like that. Some movie out there had this line, "What, ya wanna live forever?" A guy was facing danger & that was the answer. It brings up an interesting question? Do you want to live forever? If not, when's a good time to die? Yes, Tommy?

"I want to live forever."

Why would you want that?

"So I wouldn't be dead."

Astute answer, Tommy, but what would you do with all that time?

"Umm, play I guess. Till I got bored."

Now you're getting closer to the truth Tommy. Here's the thing, class - living just for the sake of living is not...well, living. Living forever is a long time. There are many things to consider. For instance, do you want to continue aging? At age 400 you'll probably not be very attractive to Mary sitting next to you, Tommy. If aging comes with living forever - well you will eventually become very, very feeble. You'll probably spend living forever in a hospital bed.

But let's say the aging can be stopped & you stay forever 20 or whatever age you pick. Sounds like fun. But there are consequences. As the years go by you would see family members & friends begin to age. They would reach 80 while you're still 20. In time, each one would die off. You would be left alone or would need to make new friends, start a new family. But the same thing would happen to them - they would die off. Each succeeding family & friends would age & die off. Then there are the many husbands or wives you may have, watching them die off. The same with your children. The infinite relationships you'll go through. Doesn't sound too exciting to me.

Then there's the boredom factor. How would you spend the next 1,000 years? One thing is sure - you'd go through a lot of jobs. You could master every subject under the sun, or at least become very knowledgeable in them. You could learn oil painting & become quite good at it. But you're going to spend 30,000 years painting? That's a lot of canvas! For any subject, how long are you going to pursue it? Remember, you are living for ever.

Probably around your 500th birthday you'll be pacing the room saying, "What to do, what to do?"

Living forever or for a very long time can indeed get boring.

Let's consider a normal human life span, say up to, oh, 100 years. You'll hear an 85 year old man say he wants to live to 100. Why? It is only 15 years. He may not be in the best of health. Kinda late for a second career, too. What difference does it make, realistically, if he dies at 85 or 100? For that matter, what difference does it make if someone dies at 50 or 70? It is only 20 very short years. Look back at your last 20 years. Kinda flew, huh? If you had been dead those 20 years, what of it? You wouldn't have 20 years of work or that vacation to Greece or the 37 movies you've seen, or the 4 weddings you went to. So what?

The only reason to stay alive is maybe for family - emotionally or financially. Other than that, anything you do until you die is busy time. Something to keep you occupied until you do in fact die.

Take a walk in a nursing home. The feeble, crippled, the sick, lying all day in bed. There is no quality of life. Why go on? For what?

Most of us will leave no lasting legacy to mankind, no book or song or poem or act or notoriety. Work, spaghetti for supper, tv, bowling night & back to work the next day. The only real legacy may be off-spring. Other than that, we will have been born in obscurity & have died in obscurity.

Then there are the countless millions throughout the world suffering in misery or poverty or sickness for most or all of their lives. Quality of live? They are in a perpetual nursing home from the day they were born.

There are only 2 things to look forward to in life. One is the hope of a better afterlife. The other is selfish - doing things that make you feel good or make you happy or bring on achievement until you die.

For those with no thought of an afterlife, the second reason is the only reason to go on, although we could add the corollary that the fear of death in many outweighs the misery they live.

We can only conclude that we had no choice being placed of this Earth & we have no choice in wanting to remain forever. For those who feel the need to abbreviate their stay, it is perfectly okay. For those who wish they could live forever or for at least a very long time, time can bring tediousness. Better to live the best you can with the time you have & share that time with family & friends & be the best you can be. Life we have learned is cruelly unfair to many. Whether religious or not, the expression "There, but for the Grace of God go I" should be a daily wake-up call & a reminder that the luck of the draw puts one in a more or less enviable position over another. But in the end, the Great Equalizer...well, equalizes.

There's the bell, class. Tomorrow we talk about a neato thing - gruesome accidents.