I keep having to leave the office for long LONG long (2+ hours) meetings.
BOO!
Archive for March 24th, 2005
Given all the news coverage devoted to the Terry Schiavo case, I thought it prudent to let everybody know that if I am in a vegetative coma with no chance of recovery, and I’m essentially brain dead, you are all encouraged to come over and give a pull on that plug. Just so we’re clear here- I want you to end my life.
You see, I believe that when you die you become worm food. Or charcoal. Or fish food. I guess it depends on where your body ends up. Certainly, Heaven is a nice idea, and so is reincarnation, as is a sort of final enlightenment, or transcending into a new spiritual plane* of some sort. But I don’t believe in any of those things. I believe that when you die, your consciousness ends.
That’s it. No one answers any philosophical questions for you. No white light to walk toward. No waking up as someone else.
You may think this sounds macabre, or depressing, or some combination of Crypt Keeper and Night of the Living Dead, but to me, it’s actually a bit reassuring.
If I live my life like this is the only one I have (because it is) then I live it for a healthy combination of reasons. I live my life for myself, for the people around me, and for people I don’t even know. I want to experience all that I can, take each moment as it comes, and do everything I can to make sure I live those moments to the fullest. I also want to make sure I have good friends to share in those moments, and I don’t want to ruin anyone else’s singular chance at life along the way.
Because I know there’s an end, I have to live like the end could come at any moment. Why should I focus on an afterlife when I have a current life that’s working just fine?
If the time comes when I’m being kept alive by machines, and I’m not the person that I once was, bear in mind that I tried to live every day to the fullest, and I’m not afraid of the final curtain.
*The 9:30 spiritual plane to Boston has been delayed due to a pocket of ethereal mist building around Hades. We’ll just sit tight here in the cabin while Aries gets his things straight with the Elysian fields.
