No Offense, but . . .
You are doomed.
Yup, we all are!
You might not like to think about it, might not like to admit it, but it's true and as plain as the nose on your face: You are going to die.
Everything you do, hope, think, dream, plan, and make will all one day be for naught.
You think you will be remembered for something? Try again.
Sure, you might be the "lucky one" and be remembered like Jesus was, or Rama, or Mohammed, but who remembers Ahmed, Sanjay, and Jimbo? No one, that's who.
You might get real lucky and have a huge funereal temple built around your slowly rotting corpse, a la Tutankhamun, but most likely, you'll end up in the ground in a quite unremarkable enterrement,or worse, your ashes will lie scattered in a million directions across the uncaring world. . .
Maybe you think someone's great sacrifice will lead to immortality?
I betcha Jesus wouldn't be too thrilled with what became of his teachings. You think he ever had the Pope Mobile in mind back in Jerusalem?
George Washington, now there is a man who will be remembered.
Sure, for NOW.
How much do you know about 10,000 years ago? Perhaps stories of Gilgamesh survive, but even these are pale ghosts, more caricatures than anything.
No, you will be forgotten relatively soon after your death, if anyone can even remember you in a room five minutes after meeting you now.
So what do you do?
Despair?
Find deeper meaning in a soul, an afterlife, a next life?
Nahhh.
I think it is kind of endearing, the notion of being eternally anonymous!
No consequences, really!
Whatever you do doesn't really matter!
Who will give a flip 4.5 billion years from now?
In the face of such a number, it really gives one pause. . .
So what to do with the time you have --or think you have!
Not waste it on worrying what people will think of you after you are dead, that's one thing.
You can also make your present pretty darned nice for yourself as well.
Wasting your time on thoughts of after YOU is pretty stupid, if you ask me.
"But what about taking care of the future??" Don't we have a duty?
Meh.
How well have we done with that so far?
Great civilizations come and go, and the greatest contribution we can make is to not mess it up too much for those who come after. Kind of like wiping the seat if you pee on it.
But we are not doing that very well.
We are leaving a questionable legacy to the "future" who will care as much about us as we care about Ghengis Kahn or his nephew "Phuk."
No, whatever we do is not so great or meaningful. We make our sandcastles, think they will survive forever, and then, we die, and the next generation plows them under for new development, or the planet wipes itself clean periodically by sheer chance.
We are all due for a folder in the great filing drawer of history, knowable only to those who have access to its data, which quickly fade.
Even these few words will someday be deleted, lost to the ages like so much fine wine, left to turn into vinegar.
Enjoy your time, and don't worry so much about what comes next. You're going to find out.
That is your only certainty.
--Besides taxes!
Yup, we all are!
You might not like to think about it, might not like to admit it, but it's true and as plain as the nose on your face: You are going to die.
Everything you do, hope, think, dream, plan, and make will all one day be for naught.
You think you will be remembered for something? Try again.
Sure, you might be the "lucky one" and be remembered like Jesus was, or Rama, or Mohammed, but who remembers Ahmed, Sanjay, and Jimbo? No one, that's who.
You might get real lucky and have a huge funereal temple built around your slowly rotting corpse, a la Tutankhamun, but most likely, you'll end up in the ground in a quite unremarkable enterrement,or worse, your ashes will lie scattered in a million directions across the uncaring world. . .
Maybe you think someone's great sacrifice will lead to immortality?
I betcha Jesus wouldn't be too thrilled with what became of his teachings. You think he ever had the Pope Mobile in mind back in Jerusalem?
George Washington, now there is a man who will be remembered.
Sure, for NOW.
How much do you know about 10,000 years ago? Perhaps stories of Gilgamesh survive, but even these are pale ghosts, more caricatures than anything.
No, you will be forgotten relatively soon after your death, if anyone can even remember you in a room five minutes after meeting you now.
So what do you do?
Despair?
Find deeper meaning in a soul, an afterlife, a next life?
Nahhh.
I think it is kind of endearing, the notion of being eternally anonymous!
No consequences, really!
Whatever you do doesn't really matter!
Who will give a flip 4.5 billion years from now?
In the face of such a number, it really gives one pause. . .
So what to do with the time you have --or think you have!
Not waste it on worrying what people will think of you after you are dead, that's one thing.
You can also make your present pretty darned nice for yourself as well.
Wasting your time on thoughts of after YOU is pretty stupid, if you ask me.
"But what about taking care of the future??" Don't we have a duty?
Meh.
How well have we done with that so far?
Great civilizations come and go, and the greatest contribution we can make is to not mess it up too much for those who come after. Kind of like wiping the seat if you pee on it.
But we are not doing that very well.
We are leaving a questionable legacy to the "future" who will care as much about us as we care about Ghengis Kahn or his nephew "Phuk."
No, whatever we do is not so great or meaningful. We make our sandcastles, think they will survive forever, and then, we die, and the next generation plows them under for new development, or the planet wipes itself clean periodically by sheer chance.
We are all due for a folder in the great filing drawer of history, knowable only to those who have access to its data, which quickly fade.
Even these few words will someday be deleted, lost to the ages like so much fine wine, left to turn into vinegar.
Enjoy your time, and don't worry so much about what comes next. You're going to find out.
That is your only certainty.
--Besides taxes!
Comments