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comment by stacker
stacker  ·  3583 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The preventable, inevitable death

The way I deal with death is by realizing that when I'm dead I won't know that I am dead. The only thing I can consciously experience is life so why not make it the best it can possibly be?

You did not exist for literally an eternity before you were born and you felt no pain, no suffering, no worrying. That exact same nothingness will continue on after you are dead. Nothing to worry about except for living a happy, meaningful life while you have the opportunity to do so.





galen  ·  3549 days ago  ·  link  ·  

This is basically how I feel, but with one caveat - I still fear death, if only a little. The thing that's really behind that fear for me is the thought of an early death, i.e. a death that ends my life before I've gotten the chance to do something meaningful with it. But all I can do for now is tell myself that at least if I die "too soon," I probably won't have any idea that it's happened.

Some of my friends describe my quest for meaning and fear of a useless life as somehow noble, but the way I see it it's more selfish than anything else. I don't want to leave this life before I've really made an impact on the world, and sometimes I'm not even sure if I would mind that impact being distinctly negative. That's one of the reasons I really identified with Augustus in The Fault in Our Stars. (Great book, btw. Check it out if you haven't - YA lit doesn't have to be just for YAs.)

user-inactivated  ·  3583 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I'm scared of death because I will stop thinking and existing, not for how it will feel. Of course it won't feel like anything after I end, but that's not what makes death scary.