Is Life Important?

    I’m watching a show at the moment, & there happens to be a fair amount of death in it. Death, that nobody else wants to taste, but—chances are—they will, & they know it. It seems hopeless, & it gets you feeling sick to your stomach. Why? Is life really that important? Why do we fear death so much? Why do we idolize immortality?

    I have no idea why some of us idolize immortality. I have a feeling I never will. But as time goes on, it seems like more people don’t like the idea of being immortal, & I’d call that good. Although it makes me wonder—if we had the chance to be immortal, would we take it? Chances are, no. Not until we’re on our deathbed. I have a feeling that is what would cause most people to break.

    I’ve been under the impression the past few months that life really isn’t that important—we just make it that important. I’m not quite sure what could be holding us back from that realization. Maybe we want to experience more before we die? Maybe we don’t know what happens after death? But even then, people who believe they know what happens after death still cling to their lives (9 times out of 10). What makes someone feel ready to die? 

    Some people answer this question biologically. We want to keep procreating. That’s fair enough, but that doesn’t answer my question fully. We’re not only biological—we’re also spiritual. Of course, one of our jobs as the human race is to further humanity. But once we do that, what's the point of staying around? There are also people who don’t want kids. Why do they want to stay alive? Let's answer this question honestly: when someone is about to die, is their last thought, “No, I can’t die yet, I need to have more kids!”? No.

    What about people who take their own lives? Even in a moment where someone is killing themselves, they typically do have that thought to double-check their choice. (Typically). Then, we have people with antisocial personality disorders. Do they value their own lives? It depends. Some show less regard for their lives than normal people, & others use people to further their own lives in not-so-healthy ways. I thought maybe looking into these situations would help me answer my own question, but it didn’t help.

    I’ve asked a fair number of people about what makes life really worth holding onto—even if it means doing stupid things, or going through excruciating pain to keep it, when we could just die, & not have to deal with it. The answer I was often given was the fact that life is a pretty big gift. & typically, we don’t just throw gifts away—even if they’re small ones. That makes sense to me, & certainly it’s a much better answer than, “what about all of the good experiences to have in life?” If we were to measure bad experiences against good, we’d be leaving a lot of stuff up to interpretation. What about boring experiences? Or confusing experiences? Or just experiences that aren’t necessarily good or bad? When it comes down to it, life is pretty mediocre. We just think it’s eventful because we forget all of the slow parts of it.

    Now, does that make life bad? Not necessarily. I’d say it gives life variety. One thing I’ve learned from life is that she’s a gift. & that’s why we hold onto her so dearly. I still don’t quite understand, & I have a feeling I never will. But I suppose not everything has to be logical, huh?