Thread: Sobering Events in Your Life

So sorry to hear of her passing my friend. Yes humor is good for the heart but don't forget that it's okay to grieve and sadness is part of the process of healing.

Dude that is very sad. However those are beautiful and amazing words. I may have to save them for future reference.

Sorry for your loss. It's good your son is there for you.

My Dad lived to 99 and was active almost to the end. He talked often about seeing every friend and relative he ever had pass. He would talk about getting up every day and first be thankful he had another day and then think "Today is a good day to die". My brother and I used to think, he's so healthy he's gonna live forever. Of course no one does.

I guess there is a certain philosophy of life you have to have if you reach that longevity.

That's the Vandal Savage dilemma. We all want more time and rightly so. "What is your life? You are but a mist that is here for a little while and then vanishes." The real sticking point we tell ourselves is aging and diminishment of health. But what if we could live young and in good health forever, would we? Would we really? The natural reaction is, "of course!" But think about what that would mean; watching others born, mature, age and die around us; watching all the "wars and rumors of wars"; seeing man's inhumanity to man nonstop. Maybe it wouldn't be so great after all. Imagine a time when you had done everything you could imagine doing and especially if the rest of the entire human race had died off or self destructed and become just another extinct creature. To spend enternity watching the world of man in his "toilsome labor under the sun," or worse, to spend it all alone may not be so great after all. Even if the rest of mankind was immortal also might there come a time when it was just...enough?

So what then?... Well, east of Eden, in my mind it is best to heed the words of "the teacher,"

"For the living know that they will die,
but the dead know nothing; they have
no further reward, and even the memory
of them is forgotten.

Their love, their hate and their jealousy
have long since vanished; never again
will they have a part in anything that
happens under the sun.

Go, eat your food with gladness, and
drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it
is now that God favors what you do.
Always be clothed in white, and always
anoint your head with oil.

Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love,
all the days of this meaningless life that
God has given you under the sun- all
your meaningless days. For this is your
lot in life and in your toilsome labor
under the sun.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it
with all your might, for in the grave,
where you are going, there is neither
working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom."