Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Memento mori

I don't understand people when they say they're okay with death.

"When my time is up, it's up."

Oh really? I'll believe that when you're facing death and saying it.

I'm not saying there aren't good reasons to want death (or, if you're a Spinozist, at least good prima facie reasons). If you're hopelessly trapped or in unceasing agony, I could see preferring death to life.

What I doubt is that anyone gets to some point in their life and says, "Gee, you know, I've experienced enough. I've loved enough and shared enough with other people. There's really nothing else I wanna see. I think now is a good time to stop."

I've never even heard of someone saying anything even like that. In fact, I can't even think of a fictional character who said something like that.

I guess it's different if you believe in an after-life. Then you do go on living, loving, learning, etc., just in a different place. But that puts the cart before the horse, because the whole reason people believe in an after-life is because they fear death in the first place.

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