Is life always worth living?
First published: Wednesday July 26th, 2023
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Decision
At first glance, this appears as a quite simple question in your eyes. Is life always worth living? Yes. However, you have been told hundreds of times to never give up and persevere in your tasks, when your life does not go your way. You perhaps even have friends or family, if you aren't an orphan. Ignoring this, what happens if you are facing a situation; a crisis even and this question once again pops into your mind. What should you do? Do you accept? Or do you decline? Choose wisely. This is literally a matter of life and death. Choose one of the paths below. One leads to death. One leads to life.
Path 1: Acceptance
Oh...So you have chosen death. I apologize for this reference to that Lord of the Rings character. Doesn't matter. You're going to die. Are you sure about this? You are?! You really have faced a lot, dear reader. I admire your courage and bravery against death. Well, this is your choice. And there is no going back. Death is sometimes considered part of life, but no one has ever returned from the dead. Why would you choose death, it is likely to 3 main choices. These are the most likely reasons according to me.
Reason 1: Problems With Your Social Life. This implies that your life and relationship with others in society is in turmoil. Not doing well.
Reason 2: Problems with your body. Perhaps you have a disease or disorder that causes great damage to your health physically and/or mentally.
Reason 3: Problems With Your Financial Life. Your business(es) or your properties have lost their value in the world. Or perhaps you have no money. You end up with nothing. Nothing to live with.
Death releases your task and duty in life, albeit without the honor that you would get had you completed them. Death is a cure for life but is of course a harbinger of fear and chaos. Having a painful death in battle is regarded with a high honor and religious people often believe that those who die this way will have a peaceful afterlife. Nonetheless, it is worth asking, what happens to you after death? How will this effect your legacy? Well, your untimely death has raised some questions in society. That is if you have colleagues or family, at least. This unsolved mystery eventually evolves into your legacy. That is how you will be remembered for some time. Until you are forgotten. And you become nothing.
Path 2: Denial
Let there be light, then. Excuse the reference to the Torah. But this is great news! I'm glad you have chosen to keep living. Just like you have for the years that have passed since your birth. Well, this is your choice. I hope it stays that way, dear reader. Life is after all not just a dream.
The first step in returning from your life of despair and chaos is to recognize and understand that life is difficult. Perhaps in childhood it is, but it does not take long to become an adult. Which you gives you more authority in society. More power, And with great power comes great responsibility. Unfortunately, that might be way too overwhelming for some people, which in turn leads to terrible decisions. Some important abilities I believe are useful in helping you sustain your life is delaying gratitude, solving problems yourself and pursuing your destiny. Delaying gratitude is simplified a process where you do more painful and demanding tasks as part of your life and ending it with leisurely tasks that give you pleasure. Problem-solving does as well. Rather than wait for someone else to repair or remove something that creates issues for you, do them yourself. This often releases dopamine, a hormone that gives you happiness. If you can apply both of these principles to life itself, you can enjoy a more free life. Your destiny is important, as it symbolizes your purpose on Earth. It is your final and most important goal. You'll encounter troubles along the way but it will be worth it in the end.
Life will hopefully return to normal. You will enjoy a more peaceful and acknowledge your purpose in life and the presence of others in a much better way than before. And this situation will never happen again. Or will it?
Schrödinger's Cat
I have discussed this topic in my Alternate History of Telugu JetPunk blog, but if you haven't seen it, I will explain what it is here. It is a thought experiment made by an Austrian physicist called Erwin Schrödinger in 1935 to explain quantum superposition. If you don't understand what quantum superposition (believe me, neither do I), that's the point of the experiment. So what you have to do is think of a cat that is placed inside of a box with a radioactive substance and a Geiger counter. If the radioactive substance decays, the Geiger counter will release a poison which kills the cat. Until you open the box, the cat is simultaneously dead and alive at the same time.
The point of that is that the future (at least according to Schrödinger) exists in a multiple array of scenarios until one path is chosen. So, this principle can be applied to what you choose in this situation. Life or death. There is no such thing as a grey area. Is being in a coma is being in one of those grey areas? I don't know But that is besides the point. In general, what you should understand is that there are some situations whose results are irreversible. Just like life and death. [See, everything ties together!]
Afterlife
Of course, I might be wrong. There might in fact be an afterlife. Most religions, whether practiced or not, believe in a form of spiritual consciousness which gets transferred to another location following one's death. This exists often in two (or more) forms, where the people who have done more good deeds in their life get to go to paradise-like place and the people who have done more evil and bad deeds get to go to a place where they are cursed and tortured. There is also the possibility of reincarnation, where one gets to be reborn as another lifeform (a plant or an animal). We will never know, as of course death is a frontier that cannot be followed and traced back into life. No matter the religion. No matter the location. No matter the time. No matter what. What do you think?
The dream began with me walking down a steel bridge in the middle of the forest. I remember that it was a holiday of some sort. My family and I meant to go out and eat, but the restaurant was closed, so we cooked for ourselves and gave the leftovers to the homeless and poor. As they feasted inside our kitchen (?) I looked up and noticed a teddy bear with a tear dripping down his eye. Immediately it cuts to two characters from an anime game (I know, I know) arguing over how fast some food will spoil. They weren't in the house but rather before some pink dotted banner. Then it cuts to a chocolate milk factory. It was very industrial, water was spilled everywhere, and the lights flickered. Again here are the anime characters, but this time they’re arguing over where sharks live. Back to my house. The lights are all off and my friend is (cont.)
So that sounded like a whole bunch of nothing. And it really was. But the thing is, this dream filled me with intense dread. A sort of anti-consumerist dread, if that makes sense. Anyways, it's an awful dread. I sometimes broke down crying for no reason. And as you can imagine, I seriously thought of the nuclear option.
Hope you found my anecdote interesting. I definitely… learned… something, but I can't put into words what it actually was, nor just the overall bizarreness of the situation.
Your family fights over whatever you left behind.