For those of you that are around 50 YO and over - do you think about death?

[Peterinvan]

Topics like there must be a real bummer for the atheists! Personally, I like the Panpsychism Hypothesis.

Reality is not "all in the mind".

I like the Zen approach where one learns to quiet the "monkey mind" and enjoy a non-thinking state... that's where the reality that we are not our minds comes clear.
It's a good exercise for preparing for one's passing. Deep listening to non-verbal music helps to let the mind chatter go.

( However I don't see a need for the Buddhist belief in repetitive reincarnation until one is fully evolved).
I don't feel a need to believe in an afterlife or some father-figure (or mother) in the ether that will look after me.

 

[pablolie]

..
The problem with death in our lives isn't that it exists, but that we don't talk about it enough.

I could not agree more. It's something everybody does, Takes no effort. It is inevitable. In some extreme situations even desirable.

Yet in our Western culture it is a "taboo" topic. It's "bad". It's "undesirable". Goes at far as saying that if you die,you "lost". How often is it written that someone "lost their fight with cancer"? LOST? Was it supposed to ever be a fair fight against death? We may dodge the bullet a few times (I certainly have for now), but the effing end outcome is inevitable.

As other have said, being alive is probably the single most freak exception in the Universe. Being dead is the "natural state at rest" (Newton's first law at motion). So it can't be bad by definition. It's the exception. The fact we're doing what we're even doing in here right now... it's exceptional.
We take ourselves way too seriously as humans. We are random grains of sands thrown about here for a ridiculously short timeframe we call life.

Let's make the absolute best of it while this universally short party still lasts.

To quote Pedro Caldreon De La Barca in the 1600s:

".. The king dreams he is king, and lives
with this deception ordering,
disposing of and governing,
and all the applauses he receives
are but a loan writ on the wind
and burnt to ashes in the end
by death itself (what rotten luck!);
to try to rule’s a waste of breath,
since all will see themselves wake up
at last within the dream of death!

The rich man dreams of riches he
is offered for a weight of care;
paupers dream the fate they bear
their misery, their poverty;
others dream they’re set to win,
strivers dream of toil’s end,
some who dream aggrieve, offend,
and through the world, in conclusion,
all are dreaming self-delusion
no one seems to comprehend.

I dream that I in prison lie
burdened with a prisoner’s fate,
and then I dreamed another state
and saw myself more lionized.
What is life? A frenesy.
What is life? Illusory,
shadow ’tis, fiction, it,
its greatest good not worth a whit,
since all this life of ours seems
but a dream, and dreams… are dreams .."

‘Life Is a Dream’ by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Translated by Elwin Wirkala

. Life Is a Dream by Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681) Translated by Elwin Wirkala The king dreams he

classicalpoets.org

 

[Oddball]

Not sure why it's such a big deal to face death. It's coming and that's for sure. Obviously only a matter of time.

I had it coming very close to me from my early age, but it luckily is still did not catch me. It will come in its own time and that is how it goes.

One day, it will just be the day when it all ends. Life is great because we don't know the day, so we should live each one as our last .

 

[EJ3]

First, many thanks for your response. I really appreciate it as thinking through this thingy that is bothering me.

Unfortunately, my stunts were not really well thought through and belong to my pre 18-period. I do think that my 18 months mandatory army service at age of 18.5 made me 20 years wiser. It was not easy to go through it, but I certainly came up as a better man and did not do the stupid stunts of the past.

For example, I fell off this wall at age of 13. It was really exciting and challenging to climb it, but moment when the wall went down on me was really close to death. Many other even more stupid stunts after that, mostly involving cars ard motorcycles.

Walls of Ston - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I am glad that you recovered and doing well. I don't have any debt at all, but is still bothers me as to how much I will be able to pass on to the future generation. Honestly, they don't seem to be as though as they should be and might need more that it was originally anticipated.

Thank you!
At 14 (I had just got a Honda CL 175 [due for me to get a license for it & me in 3 months, when I would be 15] {the South Carolina government had changed it from 14 to 15 three months before I turned 14 the pervious year). We were very rural back then. Anyway, I discovered that my Honda would run an optimistical 88 MPH (the cops later verified 82 [it was quite possible to get to high school without going in any road except to cross it] {and more than 50% of the roads where dirt until I was in my late 20's}). So my high school friend, John & I decided that we must get his Go-Kart (not your typical one but a real racing cart of the time) to exceed that speed. So he "obtained" (I do not know how) a pair of McCulloch 101 engines that he said came from a pair of chainsaws that were waiting on parts. These engines make about 12 HP at 11,500 RPM. Well, being boy racers and all around Hoonigan's of the early Hot Wheels era (& for us, Dirt Bike's), we did some research and discovered that with a pair of Cresant carburetors and expansion chamber exhaust, we could supposedly get 15 HP at 13,500 RPM. Well, you know what happened next: this pair of now modified 101's were properly installed on this Go-Kart, one for each rear wheel. We blocked the throttle linkage's so that they would only open 3/4 of the way (safety first, right?) and set out to see how the speed compared with my ride. The Kart massively out accelerated me and could exceed my top speed even with 3/4 throttle.
Now for the stupid part: lets take it on public roads & troll the Hot Rodder's with our rig. Eventually the police came & clocked John at 100 MPH+ & myself at 82. No license of any type, nothing registered, etc, etc. They strapped Johns Kart to the roof of a cruiser, and had me follow it on my Honda with a cop in a cruiser following me.
But the route was not to the county Police station (very far away) but to my parents house, where we were turned over to the custody of my father (who called John's father).
Our punishment (which could have cost both of us the ability to get a license until we were 18 & then still have very high insurance rates) consisted of us each writing separate letters to each of the Police officers involved (in our own words) for causing them to risk their lives running down a couple of thoughtless teens, possibly taking them away from a real emergency to have to engage with us because of our lack of forethought about any accident that we might have caused to occur. As well as being restricted from any vehicles (including our ski boat [which we used 3 times a week {we lived on deep water}. We then had to make arrangements to present these letters to the Chief of Police with these two officers present and thank everyone for their service and commitment to our community. As well as promise to be better citizens of our County & Country.
Neither one of us got in trouble again, John became a motorcycle drag racer & later, a medical Dr., I traveled the world as an Army DoD guy on Navy ships for 18 years.
Totally Stupid but learned a major lesson!

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Only about beating it. I've gotten in the ring with it a couple of times in the last 20 years, and I kicked the shite out of it.

 

[EJ3]

I’m about to turn 70. Honestly I don’t think about death at all, just the aches and pains that keep popping up. My wife is already 70 and is still smoking hot so I’m good there.

69 next B'day, wife will be 62 on her next, just had our 20th anniversary (my only marriage, she had been divorced for 12 years & was not looking to marry [neither was I]) but, 2 years after meeting, we married.

 

[Cogito]

Bummer?!? What's worse than the idea of this horror show not ending? More life after death!

I think it's unfortunate that you find life a "Horror show". Maybe you should be talking to a mental health professional? I enjoy life and all that it offers. So precious is the "now".

 

[Multicore]

I think it's unfortunate that you find life a "Horror show". Maybe you should be talking to a mental health professional?

Will there be shrinks and happy pills in the after life?

 

[Cogito]

Will there be shrinks and happy pills in the after life?

I have no clue. I've never been there.

 

[Sal1950]

From Pink Floyds - Great Gig in the Sky (originally named "The Mortality Sequence")

I am not frightened of dying. Any time will do, I don't mind.
Why should I be frightened of dying? There's no reason for it – you've got to go sometime.