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grigorss - 2007-04-24 23:32:25
It has struck me that I knew as much about what makes life worthwhile at age 4 as I do now that I'm in my 40's -- only, of course, it was clearer to me then, than it is now...
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iwombat - 2007-04-25 00:05:28
All the moments that we wish away, when we seek release, distraction, these are our mortality, this is how we fall. but the infinite is also of our imagining.
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Erich K - 2007-04-25 10:09:35
Fear and socialization make our days and years fly by while somehow making time long and boring. When we are kids we feel protected by our parents (if we are lucky) and humbled by our relatively small stature (our parents our giants). This is important to remember as we struggle with attaining happiness -- as much as we must find our inner child we must find our inner parent - God if you want, the whole self if you want to be Jungian-- the unification of our unconscious with our conscious mind if you're hung up on labels... If we can imagine two giant dieties behind us, as tall and strong and powerful, loving and wise as our parente were when we were infants, then we can feel as if we are protected always, and with that protection learn to undo our fear of death. I think most of our "blinders on" mentality is that we build this huge wall to block the end credits of our life movie from our vision. Shit, this is running into a full on ramble, I better go put it in my own damn blog!
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amatt - 2007-04-25 10:13:55
I have always felt that you never die really old or really young. You just die. And a lifespan is just relative to your experiences. Too short and too long, and your lifespan, is only for the living.
...and it's not that there's too much to learn or absorb, because you will never get to the end anyway, your always going to just scratch the surface. I can honestly say, with a straight face, I am not afraid to die, just don't make it painful!
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Bob - 2007-04-25 10:43:53
I'm mighty 'fraid of the dying part, and plan on believing whatever comforts me, in the face of it... but the prospect of "being" dead doesn't scare me in the least, because I don't expect that's gonna feel any different than we did before we were alive.
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Bob - 2007-04-25 10:55:45
Although the latter lack of dread may just be cuz I don't remember the remorse I felt about not being alive yet....
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erich K - 2007-04-25 11:20:35
I'm a proponent of a thing called quantum immortality, which posits that one never really dies since one never remembers dying, just as--for example--you dont remember your dreams or an alcoholic blackout. Let's say you die tomorrow, you might experience a few days of floating in the ether before winding up in another womb, but the next day you might be conscious in an alternate dimension where you didn't die, or even wake up back at age 4 or something and have no memory of the last 40 years, except for the occasional shiver of deja vu, or a premonition to avoid something bad... you call it God but it may be just your buried memories of the rest of your life, which you've been living over and over into infinity until you get it just right ala Groundhog Day...A good window into this theory is provided by the writing of Clifford Pickover, or me, or the movie LATHE OF HEAVEN.
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chris - 2007-04-25 17:15:23
First god now death. Paula, feel free to talk about music.
Erich: I am going to guess you are talking about the many worlds view that some use in Quantum mechanics to explain away a few "Paradoxes" To go from there to immortality is one hell of a leap; and the argument that gets you there is controversial to say the least. I am a proponent that when we die we just die. Simple as that. Thankfully our memories etc often stay alive in others; via there memories and images....
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grigorss - 2007-04-25 20:43:53
I am a proponent that when we die we just die. Simple as that.
If there's one thing I've learned so far in life (and it may just be one thing...) is that nothing is simple.
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chris - 2007-04-26 07:20:55
Back to God. There is a new book out by Christopher Hitchens titled "God is not great". It is softer on the science and philosophy then Dawkins book, but well written. Slate is posting bits of it, worth reading
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