Are You Afraid to Die?
You can stop worrying about it right now. No one gets out alive. Your fate is sealed. Just dance while there’s still some jiggle in those wobbly legs of yours.
In the Middle Ages, the average life expectancy (if a person even survived infancy and childhood) was something in the range of thirty years of age. There were a lot of reasons for these figures — everything from a lack of knowledge about basic health and hygiene concerns to rampant angry mobs of marauding soldiers traveling the countryside in search of plunder and booty.
Survival under these circumstances was a day-by-day effort. Nobody worried about retirement or where to relocate for the best climate in their golden years — there was no hope or aspiration for any such outcome. The next meal or the next place to put a roof over their head was a major concern on a day-to-day basis.
With each passing generation and each additional century, life expectancy steadily improved — at least for those populations in reasonably advanced societies.
There were several reasons for these improvements:
- Huge strides in medicine. This runs the gamut from the realization that washing hands and sterilizing medical equipment would reduce the transmission of disease causing germs to the discovery of penicillin to the sequencing of human DNA — the list of medical advances goes on and on.
- Technology itself has changed the game for every human. Knowledge is shared as fast as it is realized and those benefits impact everyone.
- Back breaking labor is no longer the only road to survival for working and middle class people. Twelve hour work days, six or seven days a week, are no longer the norm. A greater focus on the quality of life has led to a greater realization of the quality of life for many.
- Food production and distribution has dramatically improved the health of a large percentage of the world’s population (although there is still plenty of room for improvement in even the most advanced countries).
- Improved methods of family planning have allowed for a certain amount of population control. It is rare for a woman in any advanced society to have to endure a dozen or more pregnancies because that was simply the natural course of events for a married couple.
This list barely scratches the surface of how life and life expectancy has improved for the human race. But, that’s not really the point I’m trying to make.
The point I’m trying to make is that in spite of the fact that there are so many more ways to live healthier for a longer period of time, there is still an end game. There is a “Stop — Do Not Pass Go — Do not collect $200” on the game board of life for every one of us.
The bullet with your name on it will find you. The Grim Reaper — tired and limping as he may be when he finally catches up with you — will knock on your door.
Sooner than you or I would like to realize — before you have accomplished all your goals — before you have seen everything this world has to offer you — before you have made your ultimate mark on this world — maybe even before you finish making dinner tonight — quite likely without a two minute warning bell — life, as you and I know it today, will cease.
Whatever your personal belief system tells you about what comes next is all on you.
Regardless, this world, the people you surround yourself with, the possessions you have acquired — all this will be taken from you.
I say this, not to create a state of depression or dread (really, I look at life as a glass half full) — No, I say it as a way to inspire you to stop wasting time dwelling (and fearing) the inevitable.
Let it go!
What you have right now — your life, your experiences, your education, your loved ones, your dreams and aspirations — everything that is you — it is all a gift. Open that gift and use it up!
Life is a gift to be opened and enjoyed with as much gusto as you can muster in any given moment.
It’s not always a bed of roses — but you can use those lesser moments to create a greater appreciation for when life is going right.
This moment in time (good, bad or indifferent) will not come again. Make it everything you can. No second chances — each minute passes and is gone.
Enjoy the good. Learn from the bad. Grow from experiences. Try not to live with regret (just strive to do better in the future).
Whether you live fifty more years or fifty more minutes — it will not feel like enough when you get to the end.
A much loved quote I would like to believe is carved on my heart is from Friedrich Nietzsche:
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”
Be the one who hears the music.
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